PTS NEWSLETTER: SPRING 2024
From School Principal Elizabeth Francis
Principal’s Message for April Newsletter
The onset of Spring brings student-led conferences to Provincetown IB Schools. These conferences encourage students to take responsibility and ownership for their learning by involving them in the goal-setting and assessment process. As students learn to advocate for themselves, they discover how to let their families and teachers know more specifically how they learn. Student-led conferences engage families in richer, more transparent conversations about student progress and create opportunities for reflection, engagement, and agency.
When students are asked about personal and academic goal setting, they will often respond with evidence that points to an increase in self-discipline. Self-discipline is the ability to keep working at something even when you don't feel like it. It's sticking to your plans and following through on your commitments, although it might be tempting to back out. Self-discipline is not about being perfect but making progress, even in small steps. It’s a journey of continuous growth and self-mastery, where you learn from setbacks so you can keep moving forward. Research shows that students who begin to work on self-discipline at a younger age build positive characteristics and help minimize negative ones. Strong self-discipline develops inner core values that guide actions and practices. Student-led conferences are one of the important International Baccalaureate practices that lay the foundation of voice, choice, ownership, and self-discipline in education.
No matter how good and dedicated teachers are, students need to be given the opportunity to set their own goals, work to achieve them, and reflect on the process. This Chinese proverb sums it up well: “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself”. Happy Spring and we look forward to the next several months of teaching and learning in Provincetown IB Schools!
Elizabeth C. Francis
District Principal
*** HIGHLIGHT***
PY4 IB UNIT: WHERE WE ARE IN PLACE AND TIME
This is Leif, currently in PY4, talking about the ship he built in Minecraft EDU as a part of his IB Unit ‘Where We Are In Place and Time.’ This is a unit that is about all kinds of exploration in our world. An IB education fosters creative and critical thinking skills, initiative and collaboration alongside cultivating inquiry and a love of learning in all our students.
THE EARLY LEARNING CENTER & THE PYP
Infant and Toddler Classes: Teachers, Jasmine Avallone Osowski, Erin Quinn, May Saliba, Lacey Vail, Margherita Millan, and Molly Stinson
“We were excited to attend the grand opening of our new police station! The infant and younger toddler class both attended and enjoyed listening to the bagpipes and seeing all the police officers!”
LATE TODDLER CLASS: Jasmine Osowski
Over the past 2 months, we have introduced the Curriculum Unit of Paper. As we study paper, children are developing language and literacy skills as they talk about the different types of paper (tissue paper, construction paper, coffee filters, etc.) and how we use them; social skills as they are creating art with paper alongside peers; fine-motor skills as they tear paper; and cognitive skills as they explore, attend to, and engage in activities using paper. Over the past couple of weeks specifically, we have created rain sticks using recycled paper towel rolls, and we have created necklaces using paper straws. What a fun time here in the Late Toddler Classroom.
PK3: Teacher, Rebecca Yeaw
As part of their new unit, How We Express Ourselves, PK3 created a quilt. This project, completed in collaboration with our Visual Arts teacher, Mr. Gillane, was a community building activity. Our unit is an inquiry into how to recognize and identify our own feelings and emotions. We will explore how to identify our friends' feelings and emotions as well. From there, through interactive play, we will build and maintain our new friendships. The students created the individual quilt pieces and then discussed how best to put them together. A group effort!
PK4: Teacher, Stephanie Roderick
In PK4, students are finishing their current IB unit, How We Organize Ourselves. One of their favorite parts of this unit was learning about different types of transportation! To facilitate this learning, we crafted three vehicles for our dramatic play centers: a police car, a fire truck, and a wildlife rescue vehicle! Students worked together to paint the boxes and decorate them. Through their exploration, students demonstrated two attributes of this unit, Inquirers and Knowledgeable. They showed being Inquirers through their enthusiasm for learning about different modes of transportation, and their Knowledgeability in their choices of details on their vehicles!
Kindergarten: Teacher, Lisa Daunais
New Kindergarten Video! 🙂 🙃 👍
PY1: Teacher, Shelley La Selva
In PYP1, first graders listened to the Stir Monkey, retold by Gerard McDermott. They learned about the setting in the Amazon rainforest. Then they faced the building project challenge! This time they were challenged to save monkey from crocodile by building a boat that wouldn’t sink with monkey on it. Instead of holding a monkey, they built a boat to hold 50 pennies without sinking. They learned about what makes things float and all about different kinds of boats. They created boats using recycled materials. A big thanks to all who donated materials. And a big thanks to Ma Flasher who helped lead this building project, welcomed us into her science classroom and let us use a lot of her materials as well. All boats successfully met the challenge!
PY2: Teacher, Emily Beaulieu
Our class built leprechaun traps for St. Patrick’s Day! The students designed a method to capture the leprechaun in their trap. The ideas were creative and included: ladders, trap doors, falling walls, and sticky traps. After the traps were constructed, they were set for over the weekend. Do you think we caught any leprechauns?
Do you think we caught any Leprechauns?
PY3: Teacher, Eric Shannon
PY3 learned about weather in our most recent unit of inquiry. We studied weather patterns, climate, and natural disasters. As part of their summative assessment, the kids had to create devices that could help the world in the face of extreme weather. The kids came up with ways to warn about earthquakes, stay safe in floods, mudslides, and tsunamis, escape from a volcanic eruption, and save animals that are left behind. The kids took questions from the audience like pros. I can't wait until they are older and can help solve the world's problems!
PY4: Teacher, Marianne Lynch
The PY4 created umbrellas to “shower you with knowledge.” In the Unit of Inquiry, “How We Organize Ourselves,” to demonstrate their understanding of the central idea: “connections link form and region,” the students researched, planned, created, and presented their new knowledge of a US region to highlight its: states, capitals, landmarks, and geographical features of that region as well as 5 natural resources and their connected man-made goods. It truly “rained” new learning!
WORLD LANGUAGES
Teacher, Maestra Murray
What a great end of second term this was for the Italian program! MYP students learned the Italian
alphabet so well that every morning they can read a short “Thought of the Day” in Italian with very few mistakes. My three-step approach to the morning read is as follows.
1. One student reads the passage and is assessed for pronunciation.
2. Students volunteer to find the translation of the words. If they do not understand a word, they are
able to ask the teacher in Italian for the meaning of that word. This is a class participation process.
3. One student volunteers to translate the entire passage in English.
This learning strategy is fostering confidence in students who are not afraid of making mistakes any longer. They are showing to be risk-takers and collaborative. The best outcome was showcased in their summative assessment: CHI SONO IO? Each student made a presentation introducing themself in front of the class. It was all in Italian and very interactive. Their classmates were required to ask questions in Italian to the presenter to confirm what they understood or to request a translation of the words they did not know. It was absolutely amazing to listen to these students, who have never spoken Italian before in their life, engaging in a conversation in this new language! Way to go, MYP!
The youngest students in PK3 and 4, instead, enjoyed games and learned how to recognize the sounds of the Italian alphabet to start reading. The PK3 class was a real surprise! Check out how they started reading!
In the meantime, PYP students became so comfortable with the alphabet that they could hop on the letters!
VISUAL ART
Teacher, Michael Gillane
MYP Visual Arts elective students spent the morning at The Provincetown Art Association and Museum exploring the Self Portrait exhibition and working with Curator of Community Education Grace Emmett and artist MiYoung Sohn to create both collaborative and individual collage work. Describing how different artists expressed themselves in their self portraits inspired the students to interpret a self portrait in their own way. Using a large variety of materials such as paper, paint markers and fabric, each young artist created a piece that represented what they saw expressed in someone else's self portrait. Another great day spent creating at our beloved community partner PAAM!!
PYP 5 Artist Javi Ganas was chosen by the residents of Provincetown to have his art represented on the cover of the 2023 Annual Town Report. Students from MYP Visual Art, MYP 1 and PYP 5 were commissioned to create an image of their favorite thing about Provincetown. These pieces were displayed online and in the Provincetown Library and voted on by Provincetown residents. With over four hundred votes cast, Javi's piece received the honor of the front cover with all pieces receiving a place of honor on the back cover. Well done representing Provincetown IB Schools artists!
In celebration of the return of the Farmer in the School Program here at the Provincetown IB Schools, our PYP Visual Arts students collaborated on some large scale drawings of the vegetables they imagined might be growing in our gardens this season! We were sure to include our trusty pollinators and decomposers in the images because they play a vital role in making our gardens flourish! Students explored combining drawing materials like markers and crayons and worked hard to define the shapes with color, texture and pattern.Who doesn't love a gigantic green carrot?!
THEATER
GET YOUR TICKETS ASAP BEFORE WE SELL OUT!
Tickets for our 2 night performances on May 10th and 11th are selling very quickly indeed. Buy your tickets now before we are sold out completely. Simply click on the button or picture below!
MUSIC
Teacher" Liam O'Hara
PY3 embody our Music philosophy in PTS IB Schools. Fun, Dancing, Singing, Risk-Taking and Excellence!
PSPE
Teacher, Lisa Colley
On Thursday March 21st, the PYP K class got to have an unexpected bonus PE class with MYP 1 students. The MYP 1 students didn’t know that PYP K was coming. I wasn’t sure how MYP 1 would react to having to share their class with the little ones. They left me speechless. The MYP 1 students didn’t bat eye lash. They welcomed the younger students and we got to class. First activity was a tag game that was played with about 36 students. Next we moved onto some relay races (it’s never to, early to practice for field day). The MYP 1 students lived up to what being an IB student looks like.
MYP : MY1 / MY2 / MY3
MYP INDIVIDUALS & SOCIETIES, Teacher, David McGlothlin
Welcome Spring ! ! As we begin the last term and welcome warmer weather we continue to cover a lot of ground as far as the amount of new material in Social Studies.
MYP 1 Ancient Civilizations and Geography 1
We have just finished our unit on “Where do we live”? We finished with a Summative Assessment that focused on a settlement of choice from Europe. Students selected a capital city of a country and then completed an inquiry of choice about that city. We started a new unit called the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods and will also focus on Northern Africa and Southwest Asia as far as Geography which will be followed with a look at ancient civilizations from the region like Mesopotamia, Phonecian, Israeli and Egyptian. An additional opportunity will be partnering with the Fine Arts Work Center and an art fellow named Rehab El Sadek who will help us make some connections with art and the idea of civilizations.
MYP 2 Ancient Civilizations and Geography 2
We have recently finished our unit on Australia and Oceania and the students recently enjoyed completing a movie analysis of the film Whale Rider which focuses on an 11 year old Maori girl in New Zealand who has to take on centuries old Maori tribal traditions because she is a girl. The students really enjoyed the film. We have just begun our study of the European continent and the diverse geography of the region and rich culture dating back thousands of years to Greece and Rome.
MYP 3 Civics
MY 3 just completed their I.B. and state Civics requirement of a Community Project this week. Students embarked on a variety of topics that included environmental, community and civil rights issues. With the successful completion of this work students can now focus on the completion of the remaining curriculum and the MCAS test for Civics in mid May. Students will be only required to have a knowledge base of one of 8 total units in the Civics curriculum. The unit that was selected for us by DESE was Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship. Additionally we will cover landmark Supreme Court cases, State and Local Government in Massachusetts and the Influence of Media on Government and how to analyze it.
MYP STEAM, Teacher, Rick Gifford
MYP 2 had a visit from Cape Cod National Seashore ranger Aluetia Cole, who helped students better understand the size and types of sediment that make up Cape Cod. In a few weeks, they will take a field trip to Eastham to experience this first hand at Coast Guard Beach.
Ragime and Shakir looking proud after completing a new cornhole set for the school to enjoy as part of their Community Project. Come play a game!
MYP 2 mugging for the camera after visiting the harbor after a high tide to learn about beach erosion.
MYP LANGUAGE and LITERATURE, Teacher Amelia Rokicki
Fine Arts Work Center Fellow Tyler Raso returned for a second visit to MYP this year to inspire MYP1 and MYP2 Language and Literature students.
Tyler brought four mentor poems for inspiration: "Molly Brodak" by Molly Brodak; "What is Home?" by Mosab Abu Toah; "Most Days I Want to Live" by Gabrielle Colvocoressi; "My Therapist Wants to Learn About My Relationship to Work." by Tianna Clark.
Students learned about and practiced creating metaphors in their own poems in preparation for the Veterans for Peace Poetry Contest. They will read their final poems at the Fine Arts Work Center on April 11th.
All MYP students invited caregivers and faculty to their Essay Expo celebration of student writing for the Young Historian's Essay Contest based on interviews with family members and reflections about lessons learned.
After several weeks of interviewing, designing hooks, and drafting a 750-word essay with Mr. Burritt's direction, students shared their writing for review and feedback with great results.
All essays will be submitted to the New England Genealogical Society's annual essay contest.
Black Panther? Moana? Harry Potter? Superwoman?
Derek Burritt continues his practicum in the MYP1 Language and Literature classroom with an investigation into What Makes an Epic Hero?
After reading The Odyssey from Ancient Greek culture, students dug deep into the epic for textual evidence, the actual words from the text, that support Odysseus meets the criteria for an epic hero.
Next up, students will read The Ramayana about the Hindu epic hero Rama. And, stay tuned for MYP1's own "Monster in the School" stories.
FAWC's David Hutcheson Brings Passion, Persona, and Peace to MYP3
Fine Arts Work Center Fellow David Hutcheson returned to the MYP3 Language and Literature class after his first visit in 2018 to share poems and inspire young poets to write their own. MYP3 students were already in the midst of a unit in poetry while reading Crossover by Kwame Alexander, a novel in verse about a 13-year-old basketball player.
Hutcheson brought the mentor poem " 8:00 A.M., SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2005" by Patricia Smith to guide students to write persona poems as "forces of nature" and the poem "The delight song of Tsoai-talee." by N. Scott Momaday to practice descriptive writing and metaphor. Next, Hutcheson led students in close readings of two poems in preparation for original student poem submissions for the Veterans of Peace Poetry Contest: " If We Must Die" by Jamaican-born Claude McKay and "If I Must Die" by Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer.
Students will perform their poems at the Fine Arts Work Center on April 11th
MYP DESIGN
History of Food in America, Teacher, David McGlothlin
We are just beginning our journey of learning and making foods from around the United States that have played an integral part in making up America’s own unique food palate for the third time this year. So far the students have made the original TollHouse Chocolate Chip Cookie, from one of the first chefs in America John Hemmings, Thomas Jefferson’s Chef who created the original Macaroni Cheese and the history of the burrito which can be traced to Mexican food culture. In the coming weeks we will look at Chinese dumplings, Italian Spaghetti and Meatballs compliments of Ms. Francis and the history and origins of, yes the “pop tart”.
Our Voices Matter, Teachers Amy Rokicki & Dianna Morton
“ Who told you that?” by Silas Hamilton
“Want to hear some really good gossip? What middle schooler would say, “no” in response? Provincetown Schools students love to gossip, but they don’t gossip nearly as much as my middle school in California.
There are pros and cons to gossip in school. Some pros to gossip are that it is a useful way of delivering information and figuring out what is happening in the student body. Gossip spreads like wildfire. Knowing about the gossip will help new people adjust and find stuff to talk about which makes them feel wanted. Some of my fellow peers have stated that they like gossip because it's funny, enjoyable, it keeps everybody entertained and feeling included.
The most popular things about gossip are the cons. The people who filled out my survey had a lot to say about the negatives. Some things that they said were, “I really hate gossip because gossip is basically a rumor that isn't true. So when it gets around the school, everyone thinks it's true, when it's not. Also, it just isn't a good thing to do.” and “I hate that people twist the story and change it for their benefit.”
Something that I also hate about gossip is that people are always spreading rumors and making people sad and feel bad about themselves. I also believe that most gossip is an act of revenge against someone for something that they did to you out of school or in school. Gossip is either bunch of facts or lies. It is really hard to tell because if someone tells you gossip bout someone else and you're not sure if they are lying, you go verify with the person who the gossip is about. When the person denies the gossip, you cannot be sure. Gossip is a hard topic to discuss, but in all honesty, even though gossip can be harmful, students still enjoy it. 😀😉🤣
SCHOOL HEALTH OFFICE
Greetings from the Provincetown IB Schools Health office!
The health office is bustling with hearing screenings, upcoming scoliosis screening and every day management of student’s health needs. Please remember to ask your pediatrician to fax your student’s yearly physical exam for K, PYP4, and MYP2. Send in updated vaccinations yearly for all grades. Contact the nurse 508-487-5216 with any health questions or concerns and follow our Illness guidelines regarding staying home or returning to school from illness.
Are you a nurse? Do you know a nurse interested in working in our IB school community? We are looking to add to our staff of substitute nurses! Please contact nurse Angie for more details:
508-487-5216 or EMAIL
The Center for Disease Control has updated Covid isolation guidelines and changed the name to Respiratory Virus Guidance. Massachusetts Department of Public Health has changed their guidance as well MA DPH respiratory guidance Look for updates to our school website, click on families, then health procedures.
Stay well,
PTS IB SCHOOLS
Nurse Angela Stagakis, RN, BSN
APRIL: SCHOOL BREAKFAST & LUNCH
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Questions?: Please contact our Title IX Coordinator John Morgan