Weekly Newsletter
December 9, 2021
News from Principal Emma Liebowitz
Staffing Updates
Ms. Krissy Schreiber, our sixth grade teacher, has accepted a position as Assistant Principal at Turner’s Fall’s High School and Middle School. Ms. Schreiber has been an important part of our community for many years and we are sorry to see her leave. We also very much support her as she moves into her new role in a different district.
Ms. Schreiber will be with us at Sanderson through the end of December. Starting January 3, Ms. Bridget Lilly will become the sixth grade teacher. Ms. Lilly has been co-teaching in the fourth grade. We are advertising for a new teacher to fill this role.
Ms. Joan Fitzgerald, our classroom music teacher, is retiring at the end of this month. We welcome Mr. Benjamin Green as her replacement. We will share more about Mr. Green in an upcoming newsletter.
We also welcome Ms. Katie Tynan as a preschool paraprofessional in Amy Freeman's class. She has already started!! Welcome!!
We know that mid-year transitions can be challenging and the Sanderson staff are planning in order to best support students. Please contact me (eliebowitz@mtrsd.org) if you have any questions.
Looking for Volunteers!
The Holiday Boutique will be held on the mornings of December 16 and 17. We are looking for volunteers that can help set up after school on Wednesday, December 15. In addition, we are looking for volunteers to help students shop on Thursday, December 16 and Friday, December 17. Please email me at eliebowitz@mtrsd.org or call the school office if you can help.
Events/Calendar:
Wednesday, December 15 - 1:50 Dismissal
Thursday and Friday, December 16 and 17 - Holiday Boutique
Monday, December 20 - Local Education Council Meeting at 3:15
Thursday, December 23 - 12:30 Dismissal
Friday, December 24 - Sunday, January 2 - Winter Vacation - No School
Monday, January 3 - School Resumes
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
News from Ms. Wilson in the Library
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the November Food Drive! Together, we collected 300+ food items, more than doubling our goal! The food was delivered last Friday to the Hilltown Churches Food Pantry, where I was greeted by two former Sanderson staff members: Wendy Pree and Kare Marshall. From the folks at the food pantry: “This is a thank you to all the children at Sanderson for the wonderful collection of food items that were collected for the hilltown churches food pantry. We were able to separate and organize the items quite easily for our next distribution on Dec. 14th. Thanks again for your care and compassion for your neighbors in the hill towns!”
OVER 300 FOOD ITEMS COLLECTED FOR THE PANTRY!
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
The vax bus will be making it’s last stop at Sanderson next week on Tuesday 12/14 from 2:30-6:30. You can still sign up your child for either their second or first dose (if registering for the first dose please know you will need to get the second dose somewhere else- it is very important to get that second dose!). (The first clinic here at Sanderson was on 11/23/21). If an adult needs a booster they are also available.
Here is the link to sign up https://home.color.com/vaccine/register/yankeeline.
Your child is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose of vaccine. Once they have received both doses of vaccine you can send in a copy of their vaccination card, or take a photo of it and send it to me via email and I will update their health charts here at school. Thank you!!
Preschool News from Mrs. Freeman
This week we are beginning to learn about how animals are getting ready for winter. We have been listening to a variety of stories about hibernation. We read, Time to Sleep, by Denise Fleming and Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows. Preschoolers were excited to find the animals in the illustrations of the books and share their thoughts and experiences associated with them.
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie
We had a wonderful time creating a winter mural with our third-grade buddies. The theme was “Let it Snow”. Buddy teams chose a slip of paper that had a wintery focus written on it. Using construction paper, scissors, and glue, preschoolers worked with their buddies to create what was indicated on their slip of paper. There was admirable teamwork and very creative artwork and the results were amazing! The mural is displayed in the hallway for all to enjoy.
One day at circle time, we took turns sharing what kinds of pets we have at home and then we made a graph to display our results. On our graph, we could see that cats and dogs tied for the top spot--nine of each. Chickens came next, followed by sheep, ducks, a bunny, and a pony. What a wide variety of pets we have!
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah
For science this week, we focused on the concept that heavier objects require more force to move/stop and did two activities to test this out. One involved lifting differently weighted containers by an elastic and measuring how much force was placed on the elastic by how far it was stretched. Another involved measuring how far differently weighted cylinders rolled off a ramp--the farther they rolled, the more force they had to move (and would require more force to stop). Both of these activities helped to make “force” more visible for the students.
First Grade News from Mrs. Wyckoff
First graders recently started their new December Number corner. This month has us continuing to build upon our knowledge of telling time to the hour within a 24 hour day. First graders are thinking about different activities they do each day and about what time these activities happen, such as eating dinner, waking up, having recess or when we have math. This month we have also been introduced to three dimensional shapes like a sphere, a cylinder, a cube and a rectangular prism. It’s been so much fun to turn over the next calendar marker and find objects like an ice cream sandwich, a jar of peanut butter and a bunch of grapes! First graders notice the object and decide what three dimensional shape it is showing us and then decide if we are starting to notice a pattern. This week we welcomed a new first grader to our classroom. First graders are thrilled to have a new classmate and are eager to show her all around Sanderson! We are taking this time to revisit classroom rules and expectations as well as what our daily schedule and routine looks like. First graders are doing a fantastic job of being role models for not only our new classmate, but other classes as well. This is a class full of respectful, kind and helpful kids! Ask your first grader some ways they showed kindness or offered ways to help others this week.
Second Grade News from Ms. Robertson
Now that we have turned the calendar page to December, the focus of our Number Corner calendar is on two-dimensional shapes, where we are currently identifying shapes by name and by how many sides and vertices (corners) they have. Another focus during our Number Corner this month is on asking a survey question and then using the data we collect to make picture graphs and bar graphs. Our first two survey questions were: 1. What is your favorite color? and 2. What is your favorite book?, where students were given four choices from which to choose.
With the winter season approaching, our current writing assignment is centered on snowmen. We have been brainstorming words that can be used to describe a snowman and actions that a snowman can do. We have also been thinking about places where snowmen are found and times when snowmen are built. When our brainstorming is complete, we will use our ideas to write descriptive sentences about snowmen. We also started working on a new concept during our Fundations lessons this week. This week our word work has centered on glued sounds (–am, -an, -all, -ank –ink, -onk, unk, -ang, ing, -ong, and –ung). Glued sounds are letters that keep their individual sounds, but when the sounds are tapped out, two or three fingers are “glued” together to show the number of sounds working together. To reinforce our work with glued sounds at home, an activity you can do with your second grader is to think of a list of rhyming words, such as bang, clang, fang, gang, hang, pang, rang, sang, and slang. They can then use this list to create silly sentences, such as “The gang hangs their bell and the bell bangs and clangs.”
During our theme time we continue our study of maps and we are now learning about map keys. We played twenty questions to discover that the mystery object in the bag was a key, which led to a discussion about what keys do. Knowing that one of the uses of keys is to unlock things, we learned how map keys “unlock” maps, by using simple symbols to represent things on a map. For example, a flag can be used as the symbol to represent a school and a blue circle can be used as a symbol to represent a body of water, such as a lake or a pond. If you have road maps at home, you can extend our lessons about map keys by having your child locate the map key on different maps and learning what the different symbols in the map key mean. They can then see how many of the symbols they can find on the map.
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole
We had a wonderful day at the Berkshire Museum last Friday. After arrival and a quick snack, we had a lesson about mammals and some of their adaptations to their environments. We also got to use our imaginations and create our own well-adapted mammals. After that we had lots of time in our chaperone groups to explore the many rooms and floors of diverse offerings. The aquarium tanks full of live creatures were very exciting, as well as the beautiful rocks and minerals that were on display. Another highlight was the authentic mummy and sarcophagus from 2300 years ago and the cool moon experience in the ball room. Many thanks to all of the chaperones who drove on this trip and made it possible for our fun day of learning!
In the next two weeks we will be making gingerbread houses with our little buddies. We are in need of small candies to use as decorations. If you are able to send in a sealed bag of small candies for all to share on this project, that would be very helpful.
Fourth Grade News from Ms. Lilly
We have been cruising along in fourth grade math and science over the last few weeks. We have been busy beginning to learn strategies for multiplying two-digit by two-digit numbers. We began this unit by relating two-digit by two-digit multiplication to finding the area of a rectangle. Then we transitioned into using base ten blocks to show the problems. We have now moved on to sketching these equations. We will continue to develop our skills as we learn more about multiplication. In science we have used our eye models to learn about how our pupils and irises adjust to light and darkness. We are just rolling into learning about how nocturnal animals' eyes function. If you’re curious, ask your child why some people are blind and about different kinds of blindness there is.
Fifth Grade News from Ms. Johnson
Fifth grade looked up addresses for the authors they wrote letters to and addressed envelopes. They learned about SASE that they included with their letter. We also wrapped up our unit about properties of matter. Students ran a series of tests on four white powders, recorded their observations about each one’s properties, found out what the powders were, then got a mystery powder. They had to run tests to see what properties it had in order to identify it.
News from Ms. Prew
Our math curriculum, Bridges, continues to offer at home resources this school year. Click here to access the Math at Home activities. Simply select a grade and begin exploring! Check out a new second grade, winter-themed activity below. Email me with your thoughts! :) aprew@mtrsd.org
Music News from Nick Lawrence
Thank you to parents, teachers, and students for being flexible with band lesson dates/times. Just a reminder that saxophone lessons will be on Thursday and trombone on Friday for the next two weeks.
Last Week to Donate Toys
Family Music Night
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