The Eagle Express
Antrim Elementary October 2018 News
From the Principal's Desk
In September, we rolled out our new core value, GRIT, at assembly. Grit is our passion and perseverance towards reaching a long-term goal while resilience is the optimism to keep bouncing back from failure. Both of these traits for success are rooted in a growth mindset, and the good news is that a growth mindset means you can learn, develop and build your resilience and grit. The teachers will be asking student to set learning goals and work hard toward reaching them. We hope you will partner with us in helping your students reach their full potential.
Although October is National Thank a Principal Month, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff at AES for working tirelessly to make our students' days are the best they can be. This is an amazing staff!
AES Participated in Home and Harvest Parade
Kindergarten News
First Grade Loves Insects!
Arts Integration in Grade 2
In 2nd grade, we have had an exciting start to the new school year. In both classes we’ve been working hard getting to know one another and building strong learning communities where every student’s ideas are valued. We’ve also already had the opportunity to work with some of our collaborative partners like the Cornucopia Project and the Arts Integration Program. Each week we get to spend time in our school gardens with teachers from Cornucopia. Students learn gardening skills, how to identify the plants and insects that live in the garden, and get a chance to harvest the vegetables that they planted as 1st graders last Spring. This is truly a hands-on science experience and gives our students the opportunity to learn about plants and seeds in a very real, authentic way. We’ve also already had the opportunity to work with Jeannie Connolly from the Arts Integration program. Jeannie comes into our classrooms and provides wonderful art experiences for our students, enhancing our curriculum in math, language arts, social studies or science. For our first Arts Integration project this year, each student painted a self-portrait banner and included on the shirt of their self-portrait a symbol that represents something that they’re good at. Not only are the banners colorful and bright, they’re a constant reminder that all of us have talents to contribute to the class.
Fun Happenings in Grade 3
Did 4th Grade Save Fred?
In September, 4th graders worked with place value, including multiplying large numbers by 10. In literacy, we discussed plot elements such as the climax, the most exciting and tense part of a story. We learned about the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) when coming with our class agreements. We also enjoyed team-building activities including Saving Fred.
Coming up, we will be increasing our fluency in our math facts, studying colonial life in social studies in advance of our October 5th Sturbridge Village Field Trip, and writing opinion pieces to persuade.
A Note From Nurse Mellon
Puddles,wet slides,yogurt,unruly juice boxes,the occasional accident are all times when extra sets of clothing are needed.Please send in an extra set of undies,pants,socks and shirts.
Thank you
Nurse Mellon
Wellness at AES
Welcome Back to Antrim Health & Physical Education. This year brings exciting changes to our Health and Physical education program. Students will received blended instruction with Health being integrated into the Physical Education Curriculum. The ultimate goal of this change is to develop students who are physically literate through a skills based approach to teaching health. Skills based Health Education focuses upon developing the knowledge, attitudes, values, and skills needed to adopt and sustain a healthy lifestyle.
We have had a great start to the year reviewing class procedures and expectations while also participating in a variety of team building activities. Cooperation and learning to be a contributing member of a team will be a recurring theme throughout the school year.
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Students then began reviewing (and for kindergarteners…learning) the “locomotor” skills of hopping, jumping, galloping, skipping and side sliding and leaping. In order to be safe while we are on the move, we participated in activities that require us to change speeds, directions, pathways and levels all while keeping our “personal space”. We then moved on to playing tag where they demonstrated how to “play hard”, “play fair” and “play safe”.
Our Health focus was on learning about the Health Triangle and understanding that being healthy is a combination of physical/social/mental(emotional) well-being. The three sides of health are connected like a triangle and all three sides of the triangle should be balanced.
Muzart News
Muzart News!
The first weeks of art classes were filled with observation, expression, imagination, exploration and creativity! Students learned to use two art stations, drawing and collage. We talked about “what artists draw.” They draw what they see (observation), feel (expression), remember (memory), imagine (imagination) and try (exploration). Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) is an approach to artmaking that all of the ConVal Elementary Art Educators are implementing in the art rooms. It is a student lead art experience for young artists to problem solve, discover possibilities, persevere through difficulties and trust themselves in their art making choices. Not all TAB art is meant for exhibition. Play and experimentation are essential to developing creativity and innovation. The process is valued over the product to establish a safe space for students to take risks and build confidence. In art classes students will be taught skills and techniques as well as view and discuss inspirations and art history. I will guide students as they problem solve and explore ideas. This approach is a more meaningful experience and supports the development of important life skills such as critical thinking, creativity, initiation, communication, cooperation and flexibility. Check out teachingforartisticbehavior.org or contact Mrs. Storro at cstorro@conval.edu with any questions or more information.
Library Learning Commons
School Counselor News
Happiness is a Choice You Make
Thoughts At the Beginning of a New School Year based on
Insights Gleaned from Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland
Robin Gregg, School Counselor
September 2018
At the beginning of each new school year, teachers often discuss hopes and dreams with our students and each other. One thing I hope this year is that I can incorporate insights gleaned from a good book, part of my summer reading, into my work at school..
Happiness is a Choice You Make (subtitle: Lessons from a year among the oldest old) by John Leland (New York: Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2018), describes a year during which the author got to know six “oldest old” New Yorkers. The book extends Leland’s New York Times magazine series, “85 and Up.” The author anticipated hearing stories of loss, pain, infirmity and disappointment. Instead, he encountered optimism, gratitude, and joy. These six individuals experienced many of the losses, pain, illnesses and challenges that Leland expected, but they all balanced those experiences with resilience and a generally positive attitude toward their remaining time, even as they recognized their mortality.
The reader gets to know and to appreciate Fred Jones, Ping Wong, John Sorenson, Helen Moses (and her partner Howie Zeimer), Ruth Willig, and Jonas Mekas. Each of them offers significant lessons for living happily. In combination, their stories and attitudes provide inspiration and a counterpoint to the negativity and cynicism so prevalent in today’s world.
The following ideas comprise the primary messages I received as I read and thought about the lives of the six elders in the book:
Pay attention to small pleasures and focus on the present moment.
Fred Jones states, “Happiness to me is what’s happening now. Not the next world; it’s not the dance you’re going to tonight. If you’re not happy at the present time, you’re not happy.” (p. 29) He fully enjoys small things, like eating some ice cream.
Ping Wong, too, enjoys the present, playing Mah-Jongg with other residents in her assisted living home and tending the flowers on her windowsill. Wong says, “I never think about the things I can’t reach. I know my time is limited so the only thing I have to do is enjoy myself.” (p.28)
Have purpose.
Helen Moses chooses to spend her time with the people she loves the most in her life, her daughter, Zoe, and her friend, Howie, another resident at the nursing home: I” take care of him,” she says. (p.57) S
Fred Jones says, “My purpose is to live, be happy, enjoy life, talking…Have a good time with friends. Go to church on Sunday. Associate, go out to dinner once in a while.” (p. 121)
3. Don’t fret about things that you cannot change.
Jonas Mekas describes his inner happiness: “You have a certain kind of peace and balance in yourself, and you are not anxious about what will happen the next minute or the next day. You let it go and you don’t worry.” (p.33)
Ruth Willig notes, about her move from her apartment to an assisted living residence, “I’m trying harder…I’m not giving up…I do look out at the water when I wake up. It’s pretty. So I can almost call it home.” (p. 192-3)
4. Focus on your happy and pleasant memories and experiences, rather than the sad and difficult ones.
John Sorenson focuses on his happy memories, rather than the sadness of the loss of his partner of sixty years. (p.57) He also focuses on the present (#1, above), saying, after listening to an opera on the radio: “I hadn’t heard singing like that in a long, long time. It made me feel very much alive. When she [the soprano, Sondra Radvanosky, in Verdi’s A Masked Ball] finished I was on a high for a week.” (p. 150)
5. Practice Gratitude.
At age 89, Fred Jones has minimal mobility and a bad heart. Close family members and friends have died. His story, though, is one of joy, laughter and gratitude. “Life is pretty good,” he said while temporarily in a nursing home after a hospitalization (p. 114.)
Ruth Willig sometimes questioned the purpose of living so long. One day, when thinking along those lines, she noted that she was alive to share her grandson’s excitement about participating in a mock congress at his school: “I think, look at my grandson, look what he’s doing. So I’m excited about that.” (p.193)
At age 92, Jonas Mekas, who lived through the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and imprisonment by the Nazis before coming to the United States, continues to explore the films that he created, to write, and to inspire young writers and artists. At a book reading in a café in Greenwich Village he quotes from his unfinished manuscript: “Have you ever thought about how amazing, really amazing, life is?” (p. 230)
Happiness is a Choice You Make serves as a powerful reminder to practice mindfulness and to focus on the positive. As we begin another school year, we can learn from the “oldest old” and strive to choose happiness. As we teach our students and our children self-monitoring skills and strategies for self-regulation, help them tap into their own strengths, and foster their resilience in the face of their challenges and struggles, we can serve as powerful role models by living the lessons from the elders in this book.
Bingo & Spaghetti Supper
Friday, Oct 26, 2018, 06:00 PM
Antrim Elementary School, School Street, Antrim, NH, USA
Stephanie Syre-Hager
Email: ssyre-hager@conval.edu
Website: aes.convalsd.net
Location: 10 School Street, Antrim, NH, USA
Phone: 603-588-6371
Twitter: @aes_ssh