Weekly Newsletter
January 19, 2023
Message from Principal Emma Liebowitz
Events/Calendar
Tuesday, January 24 - Exchange Students Arrive
Wednesday, January 25 - 1:50 Dismissal
Saturday, January 28 - PTO Dance - Hollywood Theme - 6:00-7:30
Monday, January 30 - All School Ice Skating in Greenfield
Wednesday, February 5 - 1:50 Dismissal
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
PTO Dance!
A Message from Chief Bezio
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
Please be aware that we have an increased number of covid-19 cases in our school community. It has been highly recommended by FRCOG to consider masking through the end of next week. Please keep your child home if they have any symptoms and test with an antigen test, let me know if your child will be absent due to illness. It is highly recommended to do a follow up test several days later, it is very common to test negative at the beginning of an illness, so this is an important step. These are the guidelines for those who test positive:
Children and staff who test positive must isolate at home for at least 5 full days. The first day of symptoms or the day of the positive test for asymptomatic symptoms is considered day zero. If they are asymptomatic or symptoms are resolving and they have been fever free without the use of fever-reducing medicine for 24 hours, they may return to school on Day 6 and should wear a high-quality mask through Day 10:
If the individual is able to mask, they must do so through Day 10.
If the child has a negative test on Day 5 or later, they do not need to mask.
If the individual is unable to mask, they may return to school with a negative test on Day 5 or later.
Thank you for your consideration and support in keeping our school as healthy as possible!
Preschool News from Ms. Freeman
We read Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. In the story, snowballs are rolled to create snow people and pets. There were many interesting materials gathered and used to decorate the snow creations. The story called this, “good stuff”. We shared our ideas and created a list of “good stuff”. Preschoolers suggest gathering popcorn, Christmas lights, cowboy hats, strawberries, candy, feathers, sticks, horse shoes sunglasses, shirts, and cookies, and be ready to build when the next snowball snow storm occurs.This story complimented our study of basic shapes. We started talking about circles. We used circle shapes for an art project and tried finding circles in our classroom.
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah
In our literacy program, we learned a song to help us remember the four parts of weather: temperature, wind, moisture, and pressure. We will mainly be focusing on the first three parts in kindergarten and will learn more about air pressure when we are older. We practiced filling in a graphic organizer to show the weather of the day and what would be good to wear and do outside in this kind of weather. We also started a close read of the book Weather Words by Gail Gibbons with a study of temperature. We will be writing in our meteorologist notebooks along with this close read to document our learning. This week we just decorated the covers of our notebooks to get them ready. It is a very fitting time of year to be exploring weather!
Second Grade News from Ms. Robertson
This past Monday Dr. Martin Luther King Day was celebrated, so last week and this week we learned about the life of Dr. King. Two books, My Brother Martin and March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World, written by his sister Christine King Farris, were shared with the class. These stories provided us with an overview of Dr. King’s life and taught us that Dr. King used nonviolent methods, such as marches and speeches, to make the world a kinder place. We also talked about Dr. King’s belief that people cannot know what we are like or what kind of person we are just by looking at us. When people look at us, they can see our physical characteristics, such as the color of our skin, eyes, and hair and how tall we are. But they will not know our favorite dessert, what we enjoy doing for fun, or if we are a kind friend to others. This discussion helped us to better understand the laws that Dr. King wanted to change – the laws that said some people had certain rights, such as being able to eat at a certain restaurant or play at a certain park, while other people did not, based on the color of their skin.
We also started two new units this week. The first unit is a Second Steps unit on empathy. The first lesson focused on identifying the feelings of others, based on their facial expressions and body language, as well as the situation (ex. getting separated from one’s family while hiking or scoring the winning run in a baseball game). We also discussed how feelings can be comfortable (ex. happy, content) or uncomfortable (annoyed, mad). The second new unit we started is in Fundations, where we are learning about base words and suffixes. We are focusing on the endings –s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, and –est and discussing when to use them. For example, the endings –s and –es are used when we want to make words plural, such as bells and beaches. We are also learning about parts of speech by identifying base words as nouns, verbs, or adjectives.
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole
Third graders were excited to lead the All School meeting this week. They worked hard in our practices to make sure they knew how to use all of the technology and what they should say and when they should say it. They also did a fabulous job sharing the Peace Rap at the All School, which talks about how to solve disagreements peacefully, using words instead of angry bodies. Public speaking and performing are important life skills, and the third graders did well this week learning how to do that.
In our number corner activities this month we are working on fractions on both a number line and as pieces of a whole. We are also working on drawing hands on an analog clock to show the time. Do you have an analog clock in your house? In this digital age, kids are less likely to see a clock with hands other than in the classroom, yet the concept of the hands brings a lot of meaning to those numbers on our digital read-outs. If you have an analog clock in your house, it would be helpful if you were to on occasion ask your third grader to tell you the time using that clock.
So far we have three chaperones lined up for our trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum on February 2nd. If you would like to join us for this special trip with our guests from Mexico, please let me know.
Fourth Grade News from Ms. Lagoy
Fourth graders built on the knowledge they gained building pumpkin launchers in October to build a kicking device and goal posts during our STEM block earlier this month. The goal posts had to be the shape of goal posts used in traditional football games. The horizontal beam had to be at least ten inches from the tabletop and the uprights had to be five inches long. The kicking device had to propel the ball through the air to fly through the uprights.
Sixth Grade News from Ms. Lilly
Fifth grade has been studying the water cycle. We have watched videos for Magic School Bus, Bill Nye, and Crash Course Kids. We have done labs and activities such as building a water cycle in a bowl, making window water cycles, observing evaporation in cups in various locations in the classroom, becoming water molecules and moving around the water cycle, and creating posters. We also did a demonstration comparing the amount of water on the planet to how much of that water is usable by people. Our final studies will include human impact and we’ll explore filtration.
News from Ms. Prew
3 Act Tasks are problem-based lessons that foster students’ curiosity. Check out this link for tons of 3 Act Task videos organized by grade-level and state standards. Enjoy! :) aprew@mtrsd.org
February Vacation Opportunity
A Message from the Mary Lyon Foundation
Happy New Year and thank you again for your continued support! The Mary Lyon Foundation is excited to kick off 2023 with a free family dinner event from 5-7 p.m. on Jan. 27 in the Social Hall at Trinity Church located at 17 Severance St, Shelburne Falls.
In partnership with the CFCE and West County Community Meals, there will be a nutritious supper to share, fun activities for kids, and music by superintendent Sheryl Stanton. This is sure to be an event you don’t want to miss!
Register now by visiting our website at:?https://marylyonfoundation.org/events/. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.
We hope to see you then!
Sincerely,
Kristen Tillona-Baker
Executive Director
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