Weekly Newsletter
May 12, 2022
News from Principal Emma Liebowitz
YEARBOOKS ORDERS ARE DUE TOMORROW!! (5/13/22)
Events/Calendar
Monday, May 16: LEC at 3:15
Tuesday, May 17: Fourth Grade MCAS
Wednesday, May 18: 1:50 Dismissal
Thursday, May 19: Fifth Grade MCAS
Thursday, May 20: First Grade to Fish Way
Thursday, May 20: Fifth Grade MCAS
Tuesday, May 24: Fourth Grade MCAS
Wednesday, May 25: 1:50 Dismissal
Thursday, May 26: Berkshire Hills Music Academy Performance at 2:00 (all grades)
Friday, May 27: Mosquito Presentation at 1:30 (grades 3-6)
Monday, May 30: No School
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
We are experiencing an increase in covid cases locally as well as at Sanderson. You can check the dashboard each evening for the current numbers at each school, which is on the covid-19 page for the district. Symptoms to monitor for are: fever and/chills, body aches, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, sore throat, headache, significant nausea, vomiting/diarrhea, runny nose, cough and fatigue. It is challenging as we are also seeing an increase in expected childhood illnesses as well as seasonal allergies. Testing is a good way to be sure it is not a covid related illness, it remains important to protect those more vulnerable as well as stop any spread. Keep in mind that rapid/antigen tests are less sensitive than a pcr test, and it is common that they will not show positive initially, even with symptoms, so it is important to re-test if continuing to feel unwell. If it is not covid but your child is not feeling well, it is still very important to keep them home until symptoms have improved, as we also want to keep other illnesses at bay in the community. Any fever will need to be out for at least 24 hours fever free without the use of fever reducing medication. If your child has a frequent cough, or runny nose that needs lots of wiping, they should remain home until symptoms are improving. Please let me know if your child will be home due to illness and if you have tested at home, this is helpful for me to know and track. Please let me know if getting a rapid test is a hardship, and I can help with that. Reminder that you can still opt into both our in school testing for symptomatic testing as well as pooled (pcr) testing and/or the opt in home test program. This is the link for the opt-in home tests which are a i-health antigen test, just let me know as well so I can be sure to add you to the list: Opt-In to At Home Testing program. Tests are sent home every other week on Thursdays, next distribution is this Thursday 5/12. Please reach out if you have any questions at all, if you have been exposed or are having symptoms so we can work together for the next steps to take. Thank you!
Preschool News from Ms. Freeman
We are grateful for the beautiful weather we are having. It has been perfect for working in the school garden. We have many expert gardeners in our class helping with home gardens, so we put their skills to good use. This week we helped prepare our planting beds by mixing compost into the existing soil. Once the beds were ready, we planted some peas and spinach. The photo shows a preschooler hard at work dumping some compost. Thank you to Snow and Sons for donating the compost!
This week we are also busy with trips to the vernal pool to get fresh water for our tadpoles. We decided to keep 5 in our classroom and return the others to the vernal pool. They are growing so quickly, and we love watching them swim and hide!
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie
We said goodbye to the chicks and ducklings this week. They have gone home to Pepin’s farm. What a delight it was to have them in class! Thank you to Pepin’s family for sharing them with us. One morning, before the duckling went home, we filled a tub with water and let him splash away. He dove and wiggled in the water and even splashed us too! What a time he had! We thought about names for the duckling and chose the name “Splash”. A perfect name!
We have been enjoying the warm weather in our outdoor classroom. The birds have been very vocal as we walk to and from, and the trees are starting to leaf out. During our morning meeting, we use our senses to check the weather. We can feel the sun on our faces and the breezes too. The leaves and ribbons move with the wind, and it’s easy to tell the temperature when we feel it on our skin. We can look up through the trees and see the blue sky or the clouds, and we can hear the wind moving the branches. It is magical being there in the midst of nature. We are grateful for our outdoor classroom.
We have begun working in our garden and, already, it looks so different! One spring morning, we worked with our third-grade buddies to move a “mountain” of lovely compost into the garden beds. The buddies stood in a line, passing buckets of compost from one team to the next, over and over again, until the pile was nearly gone. Preschoolers ran the empty buckets back to be filled again. Everyone worked hard and the garden looks glorious! We would like to thank Snow and Sons Landscaping and Eliza Healy for the wonderful compost and also thank our buddies for their hard work. We have planted the first seeds–some early peas–in the newly refreshed beds along the back fence. We moved some strawberries into a new spot where they will have more room to spread and thrive. We have much more to plant in the coming days and are looking forward to spending more time in this peaceful and beautiful place.
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah
In math this week, we introduced proof drawings to solve addition story problems and reviewed writing addition equations. For example, a story problem might be: I had 5 asparagus spears growing in my garden on Monday. When I checked yesterday, I had 3 more. How many have come up so far? Students would draw 5 circles to show the first group and 3 Xs to show the next group (circles and Xs are way easier to make than trying to draw little pictures of every item in a story problem). And the equation would be: 5+3=8. Proof drawings can be used to solve the problem and to check your work.
First Grade News from Ms. Wyckoff
As we begin a new month in our Number Corner area we are excited to find out what Tad (Ten Adds a Decade) is hopping around looking for. Each day Tad gives us clues. First graders must solve the clue on the calendar markers to find out where Tad will hop next. We are learning that arrows pointing down tell us to +10, arrows pointing up tell us to -10, arrows pointing to the left tell us to -1 and an arrow to the right tells us to +1. Take a look at the picture below to see what clues we’ve been given so far, and what you think Tad is trying to catch in the hidden picture? In science we are learning about the different body parts that help a living thing survive. For example: frogs have webbed feet. Webbed feet allow a frog to swim through the water faster and longer. Being able to swim quickly allows the frog to escape from predators too! In ELA we have moved into some creative writing. This week first graders were given the prompts: You find a magical rock. What does it do? Or While playing outside, you find a treasure. What is it? What happens next? First graders love magic and treasure so these pieces are sure to capture your attention!
Second Grade News from Ms. Robertson
We completed our Second Steps unit on managing our strong emotions, such as excitement, frustration, and anxiety. We learned several strategies for helping ourselves to calm down when we are feeling strong emotions, such as belly breathing, counting, and using positive self-talk. (See below for a copy of the poster we refer to in class.) Our last Second Steps unit is on problem-solving, where we will learn steps that will help us to solve disagreements or conflicts in positive ways. In our first lesson, we learned how to state a problem in a respectful way without placing blame. Instead of saying something such as, “Jill always wants to use the color green.”, the problem can be stated as, “We both want to use different colors to write the title on our poster.”, which does not place blame for the problem.
Our math block finds us continuing our work with three-digit numbers. We played a game called Place Value Triple Roll, where we had two teams that each took turns rolling a die to try to build the highest or lowest three-digit number. After each roll, team members had a minute to confer as to where the place the digit to help themselves build the lowest or highest number. For example, if the objective was to build the lowest number and a team rolled a 3 on their first roll, they needed to decide if they should place this digit in the hundreds place, the tens place, or the ones place.
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole
On Monday we made a bucket brigade with our buddies so as to help them get compost into their garden beds. The third graders did a great job finding ways their little buddies could be helpful filling and moving the heavy buckets.
We have been eagerly watching as most of our garden veggies, flowers, and herbs have sprouted in our classroom grow lab. Students have been making keen observations regarding the various sizes, shapes, and growth rates of the different items.
Third Graders also worked hard this week preparing for and taking the math MCAS. They took their time strategically tackling these challenging assessments. We are now all happy to be done with them for the year!
Fourth Grade News from Ms. Lagoy
This week, your fourth grade scientists have been exploring the processes that change the surface of the Earth. We have learned that weathering “breaks it”, erosion “moves it”, and deposition “drops it”. While we focus on S-L-O-W changes in fourth grade, we did look briefly at volcanic eruptions, landslides, and earthquakes. Next week we will get outside to do some experiments to help solidify our understanding of these three processes.
Sixth Grade News from Ms.Lilly
Well the 5th and 6th graders successfully made it up to Camp Keewaydin early Monday morning. I’ve heard the fun is already in full swing and they have a gorgeous week of weather in northern Vermont. Last week we wrapped up MCAS for this year! We also finished our study of Mesopotamia. We started discussing ancient Egypt and in science began a unit on waves. We will pick up right where we left off when everyone returns from Keewaydin.
Reminder:
Students will arrive back at school around 4:30 on Friday afternoon. Please be here to pick your child up.
News from Ms. Prew
Please join me at the Celebration of Learning at Mohawk Trail Regional School on Thursday, May 19 from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. I will have fun math games to try out as well as take-home activities. I hope to see you there! :) aprew@mtrsd.org
District Event: Tag Sale/Spring Fling
Community Event
About Us
Email: eliebowitz@mtrsd.org
Website: https://sanderson.mohawktrailschools.org/
Location: 808 Cape Street, Ashfield, MA, USA
Phone: (413) 628-4404
Facebook: facebook.com/SandersonAcademy