As we wrap up English Language Art MCAS, I want to share that all the students took the tests seriously and really tried their best. This April vacation is well-deserved all the way around. Enjoy your week!

*There will be no school for current preschool and kindergarten students on Friday, April 14 due the Registration Day for next year’s incoming students.

Friday, April 14 - Preschool and Kindergarten Registration

April 17 - 21 - Vacation

Wednesday, April 26 - 1:50 Release

Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.

Mathematics

Thursday, April 27 - 5th - Session 1

Friday, April 18 - 5th - Session 2

Tuesday, May 2 - 6th - Session 1

Thursday, May 4 - 6th - Session 2

Tuesday, May 9 - 4th - Session 1

Tuesday, May 16 - 4th - Session 2

Thursday, May 18 - 3rd - Session 1

Tuesday, May 23 - 3rd - Session 2

Science

Wednesday, May 24 - 5th - Session 1

Thursday, May 25 - 5th - Session 2

Let’s think SPRING! 2nd and 6th grade students are selling flower bulbs! 6th grade is raising money for graduation and 2nd grade is raising money for a potential field trip in the late spring. Check out their online store!

https://www.flowerpowerfundraising.com/marketplace/seller/profile/shop/McMillan2

This Friday there is preschool and kindergarten registration at Sanderson Academy, unfortunately I will not be able to attend but will be there in spirit-it brings me great joy to welcome new families (and returning families!) to our lovely school community. I will check over all paperwork that is submitted and let you know if we need anything else. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions- lalmeida@mtrsd.org Remember to bring a copy of your child’s birth certificate for the front office (or email it to me and I can print it for you) a copy of your child's immunization records and a copy of their lead screening (typically done around age 2-3 years old.) We do need these documents to register your child. If you have their most current physical exam that is also very helpful to have on record, physical exams are required yearly in preschool and kindergarten. Thank you!

Preschool registration; Friday, April 14 at 10:30

Kindergarten registration; Friday, April 14 at 9:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful April break! When returning to school after traveling and gathering, it is highly recommended to do a rapid covid test if experiencing any symptoms or having any exposure to covid-19. Let me know if you need any test kits :)

Enjoy this beautiful weather and see you soon!

We are grateful for the sunshine and warm temperatures! This week we have been enjoying the beautiful weather and are so happy to pack away the snow gear. We visited our outdoor classroom and enjoyed listening to the sounds of spring and searching for living creatures. We were surprised to see tree damage and were fortunate the tree just missed our fort. We will be busy with major clean-up. On Monday the vernal pool was still mostly ice, but by Wednesday, it had melted and the wood frogs were singing. We can’t wait to explore more!

We were thrilled to return to our outdoor classroom after spending the winter playing in the “near” woods by the school. We wondered how our outdoor area had weathered the winter and we were surprised to find it almost the same as the last time we were there! There were a few branches down from the winter’s heavy snows, and some of the fairy houses needed repair, but, for the most part, it was just as we had left it and that was amazing. In no time at all, we picked up the outdoor classroom play just where we had left it–winter quickly became just a memory.

We are becoming “Spring Detectives” looking for signs of spring and recording them in our springtime journals. We found flowers, green grass, lots of birds singing in the trees, and the wood frogs have returned to the vernal pool. We like to stop to listen to them as we walk by on our way to the woods. If we look carefully, we can see them peeking back at us and sometimes we see them glide through the water.

Our classroom incubator is humming along, keeping our eggs warm. We are counting down the days until the hatch which will be in the first few days after we return from vacation. We are eager to see our new baby chicks! We wish everyone a very happy and restful spring break, full of lots of outdoor play–it is springtime and it is lovely!

In our literacy program, we read a couple more weather oriented books and finished our own fiction stories about weather. After practicing with a classmate, we shared our finished books with our Sixth grade buddies! Then they did an author interview and asked us questions about where we got our character ideas, what we found challenging about writing the books, and what we are feeling most proud of about our work! And we wrapped up our week with our maple syrup celebration made from the sap we collected in the Close Woods! (Thank you Ms. Veronica for turning it into syrup!) To help us eat the syrup, we used French Toast sticks. It was a sticky, yummy, fun celebration!

First graders enjoyed not one, but two egg hunts this past week! The first one was a math egg hunt. Each first grader searched the room and collected eggs filled with fun math problems with addition, word problems, comparing two numbers or objects as well as identifying time. Once all the math was solved they turned their work in for a few treats! The second egg hunt was called the peep sight word egg hunt. Each egg had a number on it and inside was a trick word from our previously learned fundations units. After collecting all the sight words, children selected two trick words and used them in a sentence. Both egg hunts reinforced skills learned while also moving our bodies and having some fun!

In math we are starting up unit 5. In this unit we are talking about place value and comparing large sums of numbers. Students have been estimating large containers and popsicle sticks and unifix cubes and then finding the most efficient way to count them. The class has decided that it is best to organize the items by groups of tens and then combining groups of tens to make groups of 100s.

In our literacy program we have been making our own book on the 5 steps of fossilization. We have been analyzing different texts to determine the order and to summarize what we have read to write in our own words.

We had a great day of learning last Friday on our field trip to Northampton. We first visited The Botanical Gardens at Smith College where we learned about lots of plants from different biomes. We were lucky to have two volunteers give us tours and share their plant wisdom with us. From there we walked over to Osaka, where we enjoyed a fun lunch, including the wild techniques of the hibachi chefs. The chicken, rice, and vegetables they served up were fabulous, too! We are very grateful for the many parent volunteers who continue to make our field trips possible.

Third graders did a fabulous job tackling their first MCAS in the past week. They moved slowly and thoughtfully through the many questions and tried their best to meet the expectations. Everyone who worked with the class said they were impressed by the effort our class put forth. Our next MCAS days will be May 18th and 23rd, and those will be focused on Mathematics.

A huge Thank You to everyone who made the Pizza and Bingo fundraiser a success. It was wonderful to see so many people enjoying an evening of fun together. We raised over $1,200 for camp Keewaydin! In class, we are learning about coordinate grids, ordered pairs, and linear patterns and nonlinear patterns. In ELA, we are working on analyzing and writing a literary analysis. In social studies we are learning about the history of our government and about the Constitution.

Sixth grade has had a very busy few weeks of school! The class worked hard on presentations to end our plate tectonics unit. We have been having fun learning all about the ancient Egyptians and even attempted to build pyramids out of different materials. It is harder than it looks! We started to explore how the Egyptians even built the pyramids without the help of modern tools. Over the last few weeks we’ve spent some time preparing for MCAS and are feeling happy to have the ELA portion of the MCAS over with. We also got the chance to meet up with our kindergarten buddies to listen to their first books. After break we will be starting our last book of the year, Two Roads by Joseph Brucha. Happy April Vacation!

This is my last newsletter entry for this school year as I am heading out for maternity leave. I want to thank you all for the support you are offering and the excitement you are sharing with me. I will miss the kiddos so much but I know they will have an excellent ending to the year. See you all in the 2023 - 2024 school year! :) aprew@mtrsd.org

Whoa! Spring has definitely arrived!! Soon we will be able to be outside on the trails behind the school! But for this week K-6th grade had fun with the game Uzzle…older classes played in groups of 4, while younger kids worked with their own card. Have a great April vacation week!

In the library we are continuing to explore poetry for National Poetry Month. Pre-K read Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman and suddenly began finding spirals everywhere in the library! Kindergarteners have been enjoying poetry by Jack Prelutsky. First graders read Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill and worked together to write a poem about the color blue using the 5 senses. Second graders read Kiyoshi’s Walk by Mark Karlins to explore Haiku, and they will be taking a “sensory walk” around campus to inspire their own Haiku poems. Third graders will be practicing research skills to find out about Massachusetts poets, and fourth graders have been experimenting with blackout poetry and using thesauruses to “rewrite” nursery rhymes. Fifth graders read Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes to learn about odes, and will practice paying tribute to something they love with odes of their own. Sixth graders are drawing inspiration from the poem “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon to write “I Am From” lines that will be compiled into a class poem. Sixth grade will also help to organize and carry out a school-wide event for National Poem in Your Pocket Day, which we will celebrate on April 28. Our “Poet-Tree” is beginning to feature many student poems, and there will be more to come!

The PTO wanted to share some resources for National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Many resources can be found at this website: Child Welfare Information Gateway. Below is an example of a tip sheet available.

April Is National Bilingual/Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month! What better time to share district updates and clarify some of the many terms and acronyms in the field of language learning?

Multilingual Learners (MLs) are all students who are learning additional languages, including those who are fluent in English and studying World Languages. This umbrella term helps emphasize the additive, beneficial nature of learning additional languages. The infographic below from the Office of English Language Acquisition describes some of the many benefits of language learning.

English Learners (ELs) and English Language Learners (ELLs) are terms used by DESE and WIDA, the testing consortium that produces the annual ACCESS test of English language proficiency. These describe students who are learning English as an additional language. By definition, these students are emergent multilinguals who bring many cultural and linguistic assets to our schools and communities

In an exciting new development for all our language learners, Mohawk Trail Regional School District is joining schools across the Commonwealth and the nation to offer the possibility of attaining the State Seal of Biliteracy to graduating seniors next year. This award recognizes high school graduates who have studied and demonstrated high levels of functional and academic proficiency in English and another World Language. These multilingual assets are valuable to employers as well as institutions of higher learning and the US military.

Young people seem more eager than ever to learn new languages, including American Sign Language (ASL) which will be offered at Mohawk Trail next year along with Spanish and French. Language learning broadens horizons and opens a window to new ideas and adventures. It's never too late to start! Bon voyage!

Barbara Page

Teacher of Multilingual Learners (MLs)

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Mohawk Trail-Hawlemont Regional School Districts