Dear GES Families and Friends,

Happy Mother's Day to all our Mom's and Grandmothers!

What a beautiful week of weather! We enjoyed the warm sunshine and breezes just about every day this week! The black flies aren't too bad...yet. The nicer weather means a little more time spent outside learning. Please be sure to send your child to school with a light jacket and appropriate shoes for playing and exploring outside. Sandals, flip flops and slides are cute and comfortable, but they are not really safe for running and playing on the playground or exploring the woods around GES. Please send your child to school with sneakers to wear outside each day, even on non-PE weeks!

As we wrap up this year, we are also finishing up practicing all our required safety drills. Today we practiced a few in our classrooms. Our focus when practicing these is always student safety and we do our best to use language that will not frighten the children. If you have any questions about the drills and what we do, please don't hesitate to ask.

The Spring Benchmarking period for all K-4 students has begun. This week our 3rd and 4th graders started the NH-SAS assessments in reading, writing and math. At the end of the month, our Kindergarten students will take the NWEA-MAP assessments in reading and math for the first time. 1st-4th graders will also take the NWEA-MAP reading and math assessments. If you have any questions about these assessments please don't hesitate to reach out to your child's teacher or me.

I've included important dates through the end of the year below. We will be adding events in the coming weeks, so be sure to check the newsletter and website each week so you don't miss anything!

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES-PLEASE CHECK AND ADD TO YOUR CALENDAR!

5/15-5/19/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker. Don't forget your sneakers!

5/22-5/25/23: Special of the Week: Music with Mrs. Neillsen

5/24/23: SPRING CONCERT PERFORMANCE at 6:00PM! Mark your calendars now! Come and enjoy a musical performance by our K-4 students!

5/26/23: NO SCHOOL-Teacher PD Day

5/29/23: NO SCHOOL-Memorial Day

5/30-6/2/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker

6/5-6/9/23: Special of the Week: Art with Mr. Shapiro

6/6/23: Grade 4 Field Trip to Boston Museum of Science! We will depart from GES at 8:00am and return by 4:00pm!

6/12-6/16/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker

6/14/23: 4TH GRADE CELEBRATION AND PLAY PERFORMANCE AT 6:00PM. Details coming soon!

6/15/23: GES Field Day! Details coming soon!

6/16/23: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! This is a half day and dismissal will be at noon!

Preschool 1:

The gardens out front are lovely in bloom and we had a fun, informative lesson in pollination. We have marigolds sprouted on our windowsill and are watching them grow. We also are observing beans sprouting and growing roots. We are studying NH birds. We have learned many bird names. We sort swimming birds, birds of prey and songbirds. Several birds have visited our feeder. We have been lucky to see pairs of goldfinches, cardinals, chipping sparrows, tree swallows and titmice.

Coming up we will be studying pond life.We will be singing and learning about turtles and frogs. All our studies teach us about the life cycles in nature. Today we will look at the life cycle of a dandelion and see if we can find samples of each stage of a dandelion's cycle.

We continue to practice listening skills, addition, subtraction and geometry.

We are learning how to compost and have a worm bin in our room for our scraps. WE love feeding the worms and watching them wiggle!

Preschool 2:

This week we have been talking about flowers, pollinators, frogs, and turtles. Ms Jaime from the Harris Center taught us that pollination occurs when pollen is moved within flowers or carried from flower to flower by pollinating animals such as birds, bees, and butterflies. We learned the frog's life cycle goes from an egg, tadpole,froglet, and frog. We learned they lose their tail and come in a variety of colors and sizes and are found everywhere in the world except Antarctica. We learned that a turtle’s life cycle goes from eggs, hatchling, juvenile, adult. We learned they can not live without their shell and they do not have teeth. Ms Sue brought in worms for us to play with and watch them burrow in dirt. We also each planted a sunflower seed and a variety of flower seeds and we have been watching them grow in cups on our windowsill. We had fun working on Mother’s Day projects to give to our moms. Happy Mother’s Day.

• Math: This week in math we have focused on fractions. We are exploring how to multiply and divide in order to find equivalent fractions. Using area models, number bonds and numbers lines, we are talking about what we notice when the fractional unit gets larger in size, the denominator is smaller whereas when the fractional unit gets smaller in size, the denominator is greater.

• Literacy: We finished reading I Survived the Titanic book. Students presented their Titanic Passenger ticket slideshows. Which they created by researching a person that was onboard the Titanic on the fateful night of April 14, 1912. Ask your student to tell you a little bit about what they learned.

• Science: The fourth grade class with Bennington and Hancock 4th graders attended the Water Festival in Keene on Wednesday of this week. Students learned about waste water treatment, storm runoff, erosion, plastics, and soils, just to mention a few of the demonstrations that were available. We also enjoyed a storyteller that engaged the students in the story of Walter the water drop, told through rhyming and sign language. 4th graders were engaged and participated with respect and kindness, I could not be prouder of them.

• SEL: With NH state testing starting this week, we talked about strategies to help us focus, relax, and do our best. Students participated in a couple of fun activities that encouraged them to think about strategies to solve difficult problems. One of the exercises was using a 3 x 3 square and by only using the numbers 1-9 once in each box they had to add up to 15 in every direction. Ask them to show you at home!! This was a difficult task for some, but they struggled through and the sense of accomplishment was really great! The discussion that followed was interesting to see how the struggle made them feel and what strategies they shared that helped them work through that struggle.

• Math: This week in math we focused on comparing and ordering fractions! We are officially done with 3rd grade fractions! We will continue to practice multiplication, division and fractions but our major focus will shift to graphing and geometry. We will be using everything we have learned this year to do our best on the SAS Math Test towards the end of next week.

• Literacy: This week in literacy we started reading Frindle! 3rd Graders also completed the NH SAS Writing test. We will tackle SAS Reading next week.

• Science & Social Studies: Our final topic in science is called Invisible Forces. So far we have studied different types of movement and learned that a force is a push or a pull.

• SEL: On Monday we read The Anti-Test Anxiety Society and discuss some strategies to help us show what we know through spring testing!

• Read Alouds: The Sasquatch Escape, The Anti-Test Anxiety Society

• Math: This week in math has been all about data and graphing! We have recorded data in a table and also graphed data from a table. Today we will start surveying GES students to collect our own data and next week we will create graphs from that information. We also practiced telling time to the nearest 5 minutes. If you see an analog clock, see if you can help your child figure out the time! We also sorted events into AM and PM. Next week we will reopen our second grade store to practice counting coins. Students have been earning coins for teamwork, being responsible, being honest, and working hard.

• Literacy: In literacy this week our phonics pattern was oi and oy words. We determined that oi comes in the middle of words and oy can only come at the end of a syllable (coin vs. loy-al). We also worked on sequencing information from a nonfiction book. We continue to use context clues strategies to enhance our vocabulary and deepen our understanding of texts. We also wrote an informative essay as a post assessment and are ready to dive into narrative writing next week.

• Science & Social Studies: We have had a big science week in second grade! In order to fit all of your topics and projects in this year, Mrs. Aborn helped teach landforms and students created amazing dioramas. We are currently conducting a study about how water moves in rivers as well as learning about erosion. John from the Harris Center also came to teach us about pollinators. He will be back next week for one more lesson.

• Math: First grade math for the last two weeks has been all about identifying, composing, and partitioning shapes. Working with shapes led to some beginning work with fractions and time. We have gotten good at telling time to the hour and the half hour!

• Literacy: In literacy, we began learning about vowel-r or r-controlled syllables. We have now learned to read one and two syllable words with 5 of the 6 syllable types. We will finish the year by learning all about vowel teams. We practiced reading non-fiction text and answering questions about it. We also tried finding evidence in the text to prove our answers!

• Science: In science, we are loving our time in the garden with Cornucopia. We learned about the life cycle of plants and animal habitats like ponds this week. We had a lot of fun learning about animal tracks and trying to guess what animal made the tracks in the mud around the pond.

• SEL: We talked about how to help a friend who is feeling sad, upset, or lonely.

• Read Alouds: This week we read Over and Under the Pond, Secret Place, Enemy Pie, Guji Guji, Harry the Dirty Dog, The Great Fuzz Frenzy, Henry Holton Takes the Ice, and I’m Not Scared, You’re Scared!

• Math: This week we have concentrated on our work with teen numbers. As we finished up Module 5 we were looking at breaking teen numbers into 10 ones and more ones, creating number bonds and number sentences with those parts and then we ended with a museum exhibit all about our teen numbers and how to model them in many different ways.

• Literacy: In literacy this week, we practiced reading and spelling words with consonant digraphs like sh, th, and ch! We’ve learned lots of new heart words like she, we, they, their, walk, and talk. Our reading and spelling skills are getting stronger and stronger!

• Science & Social Studies: This week has been all about planting and plant life cycle and parts of the plant. We wrote about what plants need to survive and planted our own radishes to see how they grow and change.

• Read Aloud: Farfallina and Marcel, Whose Garden is it?, and we have been reading our chapter book, The Magic Treehouse #4: Pirates Past Noon.

• Kindergarten: In this week’s lesson, your child learned different ways they can show kindness at school. The class shared ideas for kind acts they could do for one another. Ask your child to tell you about the kind acts they and their classmates have been doing for one another at school this week.

• 1st Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child learned how to state a problem in a respectful way, without blame or name calling. They practiced identifying problems and then stated the problem respectfully. Children may be tempted to blame others when they’re upset about something. Encourage your child to avoid blame by describing what happened without focusing on who is at fault.

• 2nd Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child learned how to state a problem without using blame words. Ask your child for an example of blame words. Have them explain how they’d say a problem without using blame words.

• 3rd Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child learned a new process for solving problems called STEP. Ask your child if they can recall what each letter in STEP stands for. (S: Say the problem, T: Think of solutions, E: Explore the outcomes, P: Pick a solution.)

• 4th Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child began to learn a process for solving interpersonal problems. They learned how to say the problem respectfully and without blame. Talk with your child about an interpersonal problem they’ve had at home. Help your child think about each person’s point of view, and then work together to say the problem respectfully.

The ConVal School District has news blog to serve as a hub for the latest updates, information and news about the district’s schools, students, faculty, events and accomplishments.

The blog, ConValNews.com is integrated into the schools and District’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and will automatically broadcast news blog content onto these platforms, connecting directly with the district community.

With a clean, user-friendly and mobile responsive layout, the news blog allows for easy navigation throughout. It can be accessed on computers, cell phones and tablets. Community members can subscribe and be notified by email when new posts are published.

Parents/guardians, students, staff, and community members should still utilize the district’s main website, Convalsd.net, to access the District-wide calendar of events, contact information, school committee meeting notices and minutes, important documents and notices and to view general information about the district and its schools.