Deer Families
Deer Hill School News . November 12, 2021
Dear Deer Hill Families,
This week, Deer Hill took time to honor our veterans in anticipation of yesterday's Veterans Day holiday. Across the building staff and students wore red, white, and blue on Wednesday to show their patriotic spirit. Third graders shared addresses of veterans in their families and community to fuel a robust letter writing campaign. Fourth graders decorated the halls of our school with carefully designed posters that shared facts and gave thanks for the many sacrifices of our service members. In band, Mr. DeWaal's 5th grade musicians learned two patriotic songs, "The Marine's Hymn" and "My Country Tis of Thee". Have a click and a listen. Lastly, the 5th grade continued their traditional writing contest with a new twist. In past years I've had the pleasure of selecting students to share their work at the town Veterans Day ceremony. This year, students nominated anonymous writing pieces from their own classes and then swapped with a partner class who made the final anonymous selections. It was a wonderful format for students to discuss the qualities of strong writing while exercising their voice to select representatives to the town ceremony from among their peers. I couldn't be more proud of the following students for not only the high quality of their writing, but also their poise in reading their work in such a public forum. Please enjoy their efforts!
Caroline Lesky (Ms. Henry's class), "What Veterans Do for Us"
Liam Mahoney (Ms. Schneider's class), "The Service of Our Veterans"
Libby Morgan (Ms. LaForest's class), "Amazing Veterans"
Mac Reardon (Ms. Schneider's class), "Thank You Veterans"
Ella Templeton (Mrs. Jordan's class), "Veterans Day"
Christian Walker (Ms. Chapman's class), "Why Are Veterans Important to the United States?"
Zach Zalkin (Mrs. Johnston's class), "We Honor"
All the best,
Alexandra L. Sullivan
Principal, Deer Hill School
P.S. Our next newsletter will be published in three weeks (instead of two) on December 3, 2021. Please have a Happy Thanksgiving!
P.P.S. Follow me on Twitter @DeerHillSchool for ongoing info and joy throughout the week.
Need to Knows
- The PSO Fun Run was a success in its effort to raise money for enrichment assemblies and grants in our schools. In celebration of our fabulous Deer Hill runners, each grade level will receive a bonus recess with all students from their grade.
- As noted in the newsletter calendar, term 1 ends on December 3 and progress reports will be published in Aspen on December 10. Last spring, a committee of teachers and leadership developed a new progress report for K-5 students. Please look for further details, including an opportunity to preview progress report documents, in an upcoming communication from Dr. Scollins, our Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction.
Keeping the Joy (happenings at Deer Hill)
- Deer Hill's enrichment program is in full swing. A quick tour of the building on a given morning and afternoon led me to classrooms where students were playing board games, learning to code, perfecting their cartooning skills, knitting, and much more. Many thanks to our staff who are leading these enrichment courses.
- Courtesy of the PSO, 3rd grade was treated to an in-person assembly that blended social studies with storytelling. Here are the details that were previously provided in a PSO email: "In celebration of Indigenous People’s Day and the 400th anniversary of The First Thanksgiving, Cohasset’s 3rd graders will travel with Leland Faulkner down a path of stories unique to Native America. Watch as Grandmother Spider weaves a web that catches nightmares. Be there on the first night of creation as stars are put into the sky. Fly with birds who hunt a bear made of stars. Laugh at coyote's foolishness, and experience the great bravery of a crow."
- At the last School Committee meeting one of our reading specialists, Mrs. MacDonald, led 5th grade students from Mrs. Chapman's class through a lesson on syllable types and multi-syllabic words. These eleven students did an excellent job demonstrating their word study superpowers!
- Deer Hill teachers have been busy this year with several professional development buckets. Alongside ongoing work to implement the Bridges math program, teachers have been learning how to analyze data from i-Ready in order to use the assessments to inform instruction. Additionally, as part of our longterm ELA work in partnership with TLA consultants, teachers had an opportunity to begin powerful embedded professional development where both students and teachers learn strategies related to Fundations, Readers Workshop, and the Science of Reading.
- On Tuesday 4th grade classes visited the Plimoth Patuxet Museums (formerly Plimoth Plantation) and enjoyed engaging in lively banter as they learned about the Plymouth Colony and the homeland of the Wampanoag people.
Deer Hill Dates
Grade 3 "Lifecycle of a Sea Turtle" virtual assembly: 11.12.21
Grade 4 Geography Gameshow with Neal Nichols: 11.16.21
Deer Hill School Council meeting: 11.16.21, 4:00
Grade 4 “Art Builds Community” artist visit/lesson from SSAC: 11.18-11.19.21
Half day: 11.24.21, 1:15 (lunch is served)
Thanksgiving break, no school: 11.25-11.26.21
Last day of term 1: 12.3.21
Progress reports published in Aspen: 12.10.21
Half day, professional development: 12.13.21, 1:15 (lunch is served)
Winter break, no school: 12.23.21-12.31.21
Flyers of Interest
Deer Hill School
Alexandra L. Sullivan, Principal
Email: alsullivan@cohassetk12.org
Website: https://www.cohassetk12.org/
Location: 208 Sohier St., Cohasset, MA, USA
Phone: 781-383-6115
Twitter: @DeerHillSchool