*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 7 - Pizza and Bingo Night - 5:30-7:00

Monday, April 10 - LEC Meetings at 3:30

Wednesday, April 12 - 1:50 Release

Friday, April 14 - Preschool and Kindergarten Registration

April 17 - 21 - Vacation

Wednesday, April 26 - 1:50 Release

Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.

English Language Arts

Tuesday, March 28 - 4th - Session 1

Thursday, March 30 - 5th - Session 1

Friday, March 31 - 5th - Session 2

Tuesday, April 4 - 4th - Session 2

Thursday, April 6 - 3rd - Session 1

Tuesday, April 11 - 3rd - Session 2

Tuesday, April 11 - 6th - Session 1

Thursday, April 13 - 6th - Session 2

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

Please see below regarding the public health emergency- stock up on home tests now while they are still free and covered by insurance!

The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency will end on May 11, 2023.

We want to provide you with some details about what this means for you and your family starting May 12, 2023.

COVID-19 Vaccines

-Medicare and Medicaid (Mass Health) will continue to cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccines after the Public Health Emergency ends. There may be a co-pay for your vaccine, depending on your insurance plan.

-We expect most commercial insurance companies will continue to cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccines. There may be a co-pay for your vaccine.

-Check with your insurance company if you have questions about the cost of a COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 Testing

Tests ordered by a provider

Starting May 12, mandatory insurance coverage for COVID-19 testing will end. Your insurance company will continue to cover the cost of COVID-19 testing when a provider orders the test and you have been exposed or have symptoms. You may not be covered for elective testing, such as for travel.

At-home testing

Starting May 12, most insurance companies will no longer reimburse you for buying at-home COVID-19 tests. If you want to purchase at-home COVID-19 tests before insurance reimbursement ends, you can purchase them from your local pharmacy or online. See the websites below for more information about where to purchase at-home COVID-19 tests.

• COVID-19 Testing Resources – Search by State

• At Home COVID Test Kit – CVS Pharmacy

• COVID-19 Testing & Locations | Walgreens Find Care

• COVID-19 Tests Insurance Reimbursement - Amazon.com

• Community Care Van | Mass General Brigham

You can still order free at-home COVID-19 tests from the government until the end of the Public Health Emergency. See www.covid.gov/tests for more information.

COVID-19 Treatment and Therapies:

- There is no change in coverage for COVID-19 treatment. If you are paying a deductible or cost share for these treatments now, then you will continue to pay these costs after the end of the Public Health Emergency.

This week we are talking about spring. Bears coming out of hibernation, some birds coming back, bees, leaves and grass starting to grow, flowers blooming, and snow melting were mentioned during our discussion. We also took a short walk around the school looking for signs of spring. We found pussy willows and noticed the flowers starting to push their way up through the ground. We used our observations to help us create artwork. Crayons and finger paints were used to make the pussy willows. For the flower drawings, preschoolers were asked to predict what the flowers may look like when they blossom, and then turned their thoughts into drawings using crayon.

Spring is in the air and in the pre-k! We are enjoying a variety of spring-themed art projects, including painting and glittering some lovely flowers to display on our classroom wall. We worked with our third-grade buddies to make decorative hanging eggs that shimmer and shine, and wrote all the letters in our names on paper “raindrops” that hang beneath colorful umbrellas. We have been noticing that the snow banks are disappearing and the “glorious” mud has taken their place. We hear the birds singing in the woods and are noticing the first green shoots poking up from the softening earth. Inside, we have set up an incubator with nine eggs for hatching. We are marking the calendar and expect to see baby chicks the week after April vacation! It’s springtime and it’s lovely!

In our literacy program, we read some more picture books that featured weather as an important part of the story, such as The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins. We also read an informational book about how kids in Alaska handle the intense cold there, titled Recess at 20 Below! And we finished writing our books inspired by the classic story book The Snowy Day! Students could choose to write about the windy, rainy, or hot day in their own version of the story. We will bring them home next week to share with our families!

The focus of our weekly Second Step lesson is all about calming down anger. Children learn that at some point we all feel angry, but how we react to that feeling of being angry is an important skill. Being mean or hurting others or never okay. First graders learn steps to calming down - “say stop”, name your feeling and take a few deep belly breaths to calm down. Children begin to recognize the physical reaction they get in their body when they feel angry, such as: heart racing, sweaty palms and clenched fists. When children stop and notice what is happening in their body they can take the steps necessary to help them calm down and then ask for help.

In EL, children are doing a close read of the story Summer Sun Risin’ by W. Nikola-Lisa. In the close read children listen to different parts of the text and role play what they hear on the pages with their partner. After, they write about what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. After role playing children reflect on times they saw and heard respectful moments, for example “I saw friends taking turns. This showed respect today” or “I heard kids using friendly words. I heard respect today” to help your child practice their retelling skills, ask them what happened at the beginning, middle and end of this story! You can even find a copy of the story being read aloud online and ask your child to act out what happened throughout the story- a fun way to get the whole family involved in your child's learning!

This week we have been continuing our module on fossils. Ms. Valerie (our district literacy coach) came in last week to make fossils with the class. Students learned how fossils formed and the different kinds of fossils there are. We learned about imprint fossils, amber fossils, and cast fossils. For the imprint fossils the class got to pick out different items and press the items into salt clay to make an imprint. The cast fossils were made with plaster. They each had a small insect or dinosaur that they got to push into clay and was then covered with plaster. This week we are going to break them open and see the cast that was formed. Lastly, the amber fossils were made with nail polish and clay. A small creature was pushed into a cup of clay and nail polish and food coloring was poured on top. They are excited to open up each of the fossils and see how they all formed differently.

During Math, we started our measurement unit. We are talking about nonstandard measurements. They got to measure using “teacher feet” and this week they created “giant feet” by measuring a yard on a large piece of paper. We are talking about what we should measure using these tools. Later this week we will be talking about circumference.

Lastly, for Fundations (our phonics program), students went on a phonics egg hunt. They had to find different eggs and read the word written inside of the egg, write the word, and also mark them up. They had a lot of fun looking for eggs around the room.

We have had two buddy sessions this week to decorate some beautiful spring eggs. This class continues to be exceptionally nurturing and patient with their preschool buddies, and their conversations about it afterwards are real points of perspective and growth.

In math we have been working on a unit on measurement. We started the unit with measuring time, and nailing down clock-reading skills has been the goal. If you have an analog clock in your house, please have your third grader read it to you once in a while. Recently we got out the balances and estimated and then found the mass of various objects.

We have been preparing for our first day of MCAS which is this Thursday. We did practice tests both on paper and on the computers, and we reviewed many concepts such as topic sentences, adjectives, and verbs. They are excited to wear pajamas and chew gum while taking these tests.

On Friday we are off to the Smith College Botanical Gardens to continue learning about plants. We have also been watching paperwhite bulbs grow on table tops. With Japan as our Point of Interest this week, it’s fitting that we’ll be having lunch at Osaka on Friday afternoon as well. As always, we are so grateful for our parent chaperones who make our special trips possible!

It was SO wonderful to see many of you, students and families, at the Celebration of Learning last week at Mohawk Trail! In case you missed it, I passed out directions for some super fun math games you can all enjoy at home. The only materials you need are a pair of dice and a set of playing cards. PLEASE email me if you need either - I have tons of extras! Click here to check out the dice games! Click here to check out the card games! Enjoy. :) aprew@mtrsd.org

The 3rd and 4th graders will be taking a field trip to see the Pioneer Valley Symphony’s Educational Concert on April 13, 2023. The program is titled “Mystery of the Missing Music” by Jordan Kuspa. The field trip is free and students will eat lunch when they return to school after the concert. Permission slips for the trip have already been given to students and they should be signed and returned by April 12. More info about this concert and the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra can be found at this link: https://www.pvsoc.org/education-concert. Please reach out if you have any questions!

April is National Poetry Month, and we will be reading and writing poetry in the library this month. Today 4th graders experimented with “Blackout Poetry,” which is created by circling particular words on a body of text (like a newspaper article) and blacking out the rest with sharpie to create a poem. Fifth grade students will be experimenting with Odes, and 6th graders have begun writing “Where I’m From” poems based on the poem by George Ella Lyon. More poetry news to come! (Featured blackout poem by Brooke Walker)

Battle of the Books

Only two books remain in the Battle of the Books bracket: One, by Kathryn Otoshi, and After the Fall, How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again, by Dan Santat. Students will vote on these two books in the final rounds this week! Stay tuned.