The Eagle Express
Antrim Elementary School March 2019 News
A Note from Mrs. Syre-Hager
AES is quite a busy place this time of year, and I do have an update for you with regard to our Comprehensive School Improvement status with the state. I wanted to let you know that we are in the process of undergoing a diagnostic review from the NH Dept. of Education to help us explore root causes and barriers that are challenging our growth and improvement. Having a better understanding of our challenges will help us develop an improvement plan designed to enhance positive outcomes for our students. A part of this process will be inviting the entire school community to provide perspectives and information to give input on the school improvement plan. We are at the beginning phases of this review, but I will be sure to let you know how you can help support the process as we go along. I am very excited to be leading this process for rapid school improvement. The entire staff is dedicated to the success of your children, and we are working together to focus our efforts on improving our instruction and culture.
PE & Wellness at AES
Flipping Out in February
Art Day At AES
March is National Youth Art Month!
The arts offer a variety of experiences and platforms for students to learn and grow as well as express how they perceive the world around them. It is an outlet for creativity, imagination and innovation! The arts promote critical thinking skills, empathy, resilience, grit, and more! Through the arts students can make connections to other disciplines such as science, literature, social studies, math, music, dance, reading, writing...the list goes on and on! I encourage you to participate in National Youth Art Month by accepting one or more of the following activity challenges for you and your student.
Supplies: paper and pencils (optional: crayons, markers, colored pencils). As an extra challenge - act out the ideas through telling a story, making up a song or using movement. Just have fun with it!
Create a self portrait.
Draw something that makes you laugh.
Invent a new animal.
Design a picture showing the best part of your day.
Describe someone in your family.
The NH State Council on the Arts is displaying student artwork from across the state at the State House in Concord during the month of March. We have nine student artworks on display who are representing AES! You can visit the exhibit during normal business hours from 8am to 4pm Monday through Friday. We celebrate all AES artists and their creativity that they share everyday! We are proud to have an arts supportive community! Another point of pride in our community is our annual Children and the Arts (CATA) Festival. Please SAVE THE DATE for CATA which will be held in Peterborough on Saturday, May 18th from 9am to 3pm! This years theme is “Let Your Light Shine.” More information to follow.
Kindergarten News
During Kindness week, the students made their own clay hearts. We then came together as a class to figure out a way to attach all of our hearts together into one large heart. We did this project to celebrate being kind to one another and and to understand the importance of working together as a class!
1st Grade News
In February the first grade celebrated the all important 100th day of school. All students heard the story The Wolf's Chicken Stew in which a wolf makes 100 pancakes, 100 doughnuts, a cake hat weighs 100 pounds for a chicken he is trying to fatten up so he, the wolf, will be able to make this huge chicken stew. This book has a surprise ending!!! We suggest you get a copy of the book and find out how this book ends!
Then the students had to find the 100 unifix cubes that were hidden in Mrs. Donovan's room. We are happy to report that this year all the cubes were found!!!!
We learned about how many one, five, ten, twenty and fifty dollar bills were equal to an one hundred dollar bill. We actually got to hold a hundred dollar bill! Then each child wrote about what they would do with a hundred dollar bill. Some children would save it while others would buy something usually a toy!!
Next the children looked at many pictures of people that were at least 100 years old and then were asked to make a picture of themselves at 100 years of age. We had a lot of white-haired/ bald people who had lots of wrinkles and some with canes/wheelchairs.
Another fun activity was comparing the weight of 100 items ranging from 100 paper clips to 100 plastic bread ties to 100 M&Ms to 100 Skittles. Just so you know 100 Skittles beat the 100 M&Ms!
Finally we did a STEM activity of creating our own designs and structures using 10 sets of 10 pattern blocks, linking cubes, and/or dominoes. We had all kinds of structures and designs. It was a fun filled day of learning!!
Library Learning Commons
2nd Grade Happenings
February was a quick month and full of celebrations for us in second grade! Kindness week was a highlight. One of the favorite things we did for kindness week was writing thank you cards to different staff members along with our Reading Buddies. It was fun to hand them out and see the smiles! Because of the snow days, we ended up celebrating Valentine’s Day and 100th Day together. We wrote about what we would be doing when we are 100, and we put our pictures through an Aging Booth App. That was really funny to see what the kids will look like when they’re 100! We did a probability challenge and flipped a coin 100 times to see how many heads and tails as well as other fun activities. The celebrations continued as we focused on Presidents’ Day, and we learned specifically about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We practiced our informative writing by writing paragraphs about these two great men. Another highlight was learning about Haiku which is Japanese Poetry. Each student got to write a winter haiku. To go along with one of the stories we read in literacy, many students wrote business letters to their favorite company. Lego, Gund, and other (kid friendly) companies will be receiving letters from AES second graders! We eagerly await some kind of response!
As we look ahead to March, we are beginning new modules in math including measurement and organizing data. We will also start a really fun unit on solids, liquids, and gases in Science. We love using Mystery Science to help lead us into various experiments in Science. I’m sure parents will be hearing about these at home! This is a great time of year to really see second graders take off in their love of reading. Please do all you can to encourage this from home—set aside reading time, read with your child, take weekly trips to the library, let your kids see you reading! Readers are leaders!
Recent Counseling Lessons with Mrs. Gregg
3rd Grade Happenings
Grade 4 News
In February, 4th grade completed our mammal study in Science with the Harris Center. We learned how to track mammals, and found evidence of deer, vole, and more! In Social Studies, we had an excellent field trip to the State House in Concord, where we met our state representatives and learned how the largest state legislature in the country passes laws.
This month, we are excited to be a part of the Antrim Community Supper on March 21st. We have been helping with decorations for the suppers throughout the year, and will be helping our school host this important event.
As a grade level, we are working on geometry, understanding shapes. Did you know there are six types of triangles? They are equilateral, right-angle, isosceles, scalene, acute, and obtuse. We are working hard at school and home to become more knowledgeable mathematicians and to apply what we know!
Story Teller Fun and Games
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2019, 05:30 PM
10 School Street, Antrim, NH, USA
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Stephanie Syre-Hager
Email: ssyre-hager@conval.edu
Website: aes.convalsd.net
Location: 10 School Street, Antrim, NH, USA
Phone: 603-588-6371
Twitter: @aes_ssh