It was wonderful to welcome our exchange students and chaperone from Mexico! They are getting acclimated to the building and enjoying the snow!

COVID cases have dropped considerably since last week. Let’s continue to take care of our community by keeping students home when symptomatic. Thank you for your patience as we continue to navigate the winter weather and illnesses.

Saturday, January 28 - PTO Dance - Hollywood Theme - 6:00-7:30

Monday, January 30 - All School Ice Skating in Greenfield

Wednesday, February 1 - 1:50 Dismissal

Tuesday, February 7 - Exchange Students Leave

Wednesday, February 8 - 1:50 Dismissal

Thursday, February 9 - Report Cards sent home

Wednesday, February 15 - All School Meeting at 2:15

February 20 - 24 - February Vacation

February 21 - Sanderson Students Leave for Mexico

Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.

Thank you for your continued support in helping to keep our school healthy and keeping your children home when ill. Please continue to test with an antigen test if developing symptoms and do a repeat test in 48 hours. Please let me know if you are in need of any test kits. Thankfully covid cases are now trending downward. Thank you for your support!

This week we talked about the snowy weather and shared our experiences during the snow days. It was great to hear that preschoolers enjoyed time outside. They helped with shoveling and snow removal, went sledding, and some skiing. With more snow on the way, I hope the preschoolers will continue to have fun outside!

This week we also continued our shape study by making Shape Monsters! Shape Monsters are created using shapes and they get very hungry. Can you guess what they eat? Preschoolers will need to say the rhyme and feed them. Circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles are their favorites!

Here is the rhyme and a photo of our Shape Monsters.

Shape Monster, Shape Monster

Munch, munch, munch

How about a … (name a shape)

For your lunch

We had a great time sledding with our third-grade buddies! It took a few runs to smooth out tracks in the new and falling snow behind the school, but once done, the sleds zipped right down for a satisfying ride. Our buddies helped our preschoolers bring the sleds back up the hill for another ride, and laughter and smiles were all around. It was a lovely time.

Inside, we are talking about hibernation and sharing what we know about animals in our area who might be sleeping the cold winter away. We played a guessing game about a hibernating bear, taking turns hiding a picture of a little bear cub under a card with a letter on it, while the rest of the class hid their eyes. When the bear cub was hidden in the “letter den” we took turns trying to find it. First, we identified the letter and then turned its card over to see if the bear was hiding there. We had fun playing this game together.

In math this week, we reviewed our 5+some more facts (such as 5 and 3 more is 8). Knowing these facts without having to count is a great shortcut for later computation. We played several games using nickels and pennies to practice with these facts, which was a great correspondence with our social studies topic of money!

First graders have begun their second module in our new EL curriculum. This module focuses on the sun, the moon and the stars. Students first learn why authors write about the sun, moon and stars and then they take a closer look at some pictures and videos of the sun and the moon. While watching the time lapse videos and images, children create a list of questions they have. These questions will be explored throughout the unit.

In science we have started our life science unit. We learned about the needs of living things, such as light, air, water, food and a suitable habitat. Our Brook trout are now in the alevin stage of their life cycle. In this cycle the Brook trout are feeding off of their yolk sac and getting all the nutrients and food they need. During this stage the Brook trout remain fairly still at the bottom of the tank, but once they have finished eating they will begin to swim up and begin feeding from the flakes we add to the tank.

As shared in earlier newsletters, the focus of our Number Corner calendar for January was on graphing and related equations. Below is a picture of our calendar markers to date and close-ups of three of the graphs. To extend our Number Corner lessons at home, you and your second grader can look at the graphs and discuss these questions:

• What is the survey question that may have been asked?

• How many people took part in the survey?

• How many more people (or fewer people) chose _____ instead of ______?

• What would be a good title for the graph that accurately reflects the data shown?

You can also pose story problems for your child to solve, using the equations as a starting point. For example, for the equation 25 – 10 = _____, one might ask: “25 people took part in a survey. 10 people chose riding a skateboard as their favorite activity. How many people chose riding a bike as their favorite?” As a final extension, you can have your second grader think of a survey question to ask their relatives. They can then collect the data and use it to create a picture graph or a bar graph. Second graders are then welcome to bring in any graphs they create to share with the class.

Third graders have been busy learning a technique for writing creative stories called the D-A-V pattern. The D stands for “Dialogue,” and the first sentence in the story is a dialogue sentence, in which a character is talking. The next sentence is an “Action” sentence, and the third sentence is a “Visually” descriptive sentence. After that, they go back to a dialogue sentence. And so the story unfolds. Third graders are applying this technique to the stories they are writing based upon a Norman Rockwell print they chose. We are all looking forward to our trip to Stockbridge next week to see many of his masterpieces in person!

Third graders also got to help their little buddies sled this week, and we worked on making the “HOLLYWOOD” sign for this weekend’s dance. We hope to see you all there!

Fourth graders have been studying the land of water of the Midwest Region. Here is one student’s submission from their scrapbook:

The Central Plains are flat, and gently rolling, with very few trees. Prairie grasses cover most of the land. The soil is extremely fertile.. The Great Plains lie to the west of the Central Plains. There the soil is not as fertile, there is less rainfall, and the land is higher, drier, and rockier than the Central Plains. It is mostly grassland with few trees. The Black Hills are the hilliest part of the Great Plains. There are very high granite peaks. The Badlands are very dry and useless for farming & other human purposes. There are steep slopes made of clay & soft rock that erode when it rains making canyons and strange shapes.

Water is a big part of the Midwest and most major cities in the Midwest were formed near waterways. The Mississippi River is 2,300 miles long and flows from the Central Plains to the Gulf of Mexico. Many tributaries join the Mississippi River such as the Arkansas River, Ohio River, and the Missouri River, which is the longest river in the United States. Four out of five Great Lakes touch the Midwest and hold one fifth of all the freshwater in the world. Not all of the Great Lakes are the same level so they use locks to lift and lower ships from one lake to another. The Soo Locks are the busiest locks in the world. Each year 12,000 ships pass through the Soo Locks.

Fifth grade students have been studying the rainforest and using that information to learn about different structures of text. We have been using different graphic organizers for each of the different structures of writing.

• problem/solution: gives evidence of a problem and one or more ways to solve it • description: tells the characteristics of a topic

• proposition/support: states a main idea or claim and gives details or evidence to support it

• chronological/sequential: relates a sequence of events or steps in a process

• cause/effect: explains the reason something is happening and what happened as a result

• comparison: explains how two things or ideas are the same/ different

Congratulations to members of our school band on their recent performance at All-School–well done everyone!

If any 4th, 5th, or 6th grader would like to participate in instrumental music lessons and in our school band, it’s not too late! We are reopening enrollment for students interested in joining us. If you would like to learn to play a band instrument, please see Miss Julie for more information.

This week, I have a few fun math puzzles for you! I would love to see the solutions you come up with - email me. Enjoy! :) aprew@mtrsd.org

• What is the next number in the series? 7,645 5,764 4,576

• I add five to nine and get two. The answer is correct, but how?

• Using only addition, how can you add eight 8’s to get the number 1,000?

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