Weekly Newsletter
November 30, 2023
News from Principal Emma Liebowitz
STATIONARY NEEDED! The 5th grade has begun a pen pal project with Ashfield seniors. We are looking for blank notecards, stationary paper, and envelopes for 5th graders to use. Donations can be brought to the library. Thank you very much!
Upcoming Events
Friday, December 1: Officer Jenkins visits to students in grade 4-6 (9:00 - 10:30)
Sunday, December 3: Holiday Boutique (2:00 - 3:30)
Monday, December 4 - Principal Virtual Coffee Hours (9:15 - 10:00) LINK
Wednesday, December 6 - 1:50 Dismissal
Monday, December 11 - Principal Virtual Coffee Hours (2:45 - 3:30) LINK
Wednesday, December 13 - Preschool Visit to a Fire Station
Wednesday, December 13 - 1:50 Dismissal
Wednesday, December 13 - School Committee Meeting at MTRS (6:00)
Friday, December 15 - Winter Concert (2:00)
Friday, December 22 - 12:30 Dismissal
December 25 - January 1, 2024 - No School
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
PTO News
The Holiday Boutique will take place on Sunday, December 3rd from 2:00-3:30pm. Crafts, hot chocolate and holiday shopping for Sanderson students.
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
Greetings from the health office! I have received more clarification regarding the dental program that I wanted to share with you. This program is designed to enroll any child who currently does not have a dentist, or for a child who is already a patient at the Community Health Center of Franklin County (CHCFC) to receive their dental care at school instead of at the office, in order to reduce missed school time. I am sorry that this program will not be available to all. However- any student can get a dental screening once a year through this program- “ This would be where the provider does an overall assessment of the child’s dentition, reviews homecare and makes suggestions, notes any suspicious areas that should be evaluated by a dentist. No actual treatment is done, but the provider will prepare a “report card” to send home to the parent.”
Please feel free to email me at lalmeida@mtrsd.org with any questions.
In other news, you can yet again get 4 free covid tests from the government that will be mailed to you at no cost at all. Signing up only takes a few minutes. If you have not signed up for the free tests that were sent in the fall- you can do that at the same time and receive 8 free tests. Click the link to sign up: https://www.covid.gov/tests. It is good practice to have tests on hand in the event you or a family member develop symptoms or want to test before seeing someone who is at more risk such as grandparents. Remember that when testing for covid-19 it is always recommended to re-test in 24-48 hours as it is very common to have a false negative early on in an illness with covid-19. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.
Preschool news from Ms. Freeman and Ms. Becky
Preschoolers were excited to be back at school and with each other. They talked about their Thanksgiving celebrations with family and friends. It was interesting to learn about different family traditions as well as favorite foods to eat.
Since we were talking about food, we learned a chant about making soup. Each preschooler named an ingredient to put in our soup. Our first soup was made with carrots, strawberries, blueberries, snowflakes, ice cream, raspberries, broccoli, and icicles. Yum! Yum!
Have fun creating your own soup with your family.
Here is how the chant goes:
Chop chop
Chippity chop
Cut off the bottom and cut off the top
What we have left we put in the pot
Chop chop
Chippity chop
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie and Ms. Kylee
Preschoolers have been exploring what it means to be kind. We have read stories about kindness and discussed what kindness is. Children talked with each other about kindness and came up with thoughts that included , “taking care of others, sharing with friends, helping with chores, and loving family members”. Next week we will be focusing on one act of kindness each day for the week. Children brainstormed some ideas for how they would like to express kindness to others for this activity. Here are some of the things they came up with, inviting friends to play with them, writing thank you notes to people who help make their school day run smoothly, helping teachers and family members with jobs or chores and greeting each other with a smile. They are so excited to share their kindness with each other and the entire school community. Each and every one of their heart’s are brimming with kindness!
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah, Ms. Veronica and Ms. Beckwith
In science, this week was Push & Pull week in our exciting study of force and motion! We did two activities to help us notice how we use force and to help us distinguish between pushing (moves object away) and pulling (moves object closer). One was a push & pull inventory to track how often we use each kind of force during our regular daily routines (turns out we use pushing and pulling about the same amount!) The other activity was a push & pull version of shuffleboard. We also read a mini book about pushing and pulling objects in our daily lives.
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole and Mr. Luke
In math third graders have been using rounding and estimating to decide if their answers to three-digit addition and subtraction problems are reasonable. They are using number lines to solve larger subtraction problems after deciding if they should use a “removal” or “difference” approach to finding the answer.
Third graders are continuing to learn how to write in cursive. This week we practiced writing dictated words without copying them, which means the proper formation of the letters had to come from memory. We are also continuing to practice typing through the Typing Club website.
The class did a great job practicing for and running the All School assembly this week. They also played their recorders and the Orf instruments for the whole school. They should be proud of their hard work and a job well done.
With our buddies this week, we discussed people, places and items for which we are grateful. After conversations, turkey feathers were made, labeled, and put onto colorful turkeys crafted from our hand prints.
Fourth Grade News from Ms. Lagoy and Ms. Upright
In the month of December, fourth graders will be learning about the human body. In the first lesson, your child will learn that muscles work by pulling on bones at the joints. The muscles do this via strings called tendons. We will be creating a paper model of a finger based on students’ understanding of this process. Next week, we will create a working model of a human eye! Using that model, we will discover the basics of how our eyes work, and figure out some of the causes of vision problems. Building on that knowledge, we will delve further into how our eyes work, exploring the function of the iris and pupil. Your child will add a part to their eye model and experiment to see how the pupil affects vision. After this exploration, one thing you can do to support your child's curiosity is to sit down together and look at pictures of animals’ eyes. If you have a pet at home, like a cat or dog, use the flash of a camera to snap a photo, and see if you can spot the pet’s colorful green layer at the back of the eye. This layer helps these animals to see better at night. Invite your child to share with you what they’ve learned about this! We will wrap up this unit, hopefully before break, with a lesson about the brain’s role in receiving information from the senses, processing that information, and then controlling the body's muscles to enable movement. We will play a game in which we will test our reflexes. The fact that our reflexes always have a slight delay will help your child to see that there are real pathways (nerves) on which messages from the brain have to travel. Over the break, one thing you can do to support your child’s curiosity is to play a round of the “reflex” game together at home. All you need is a ruler or cooking spoon—ask your child to explain the rules of the game to you. Ask your child about the “dollar bill” challenge too! As you play these games, there's an opportunity for a great discussion about how the brain requires time to send a message to your fingers.
Fifth Grade News from Ms. Johnson and Ms. Shero
Fifth grade has just started studying our government and constitution. We have been learning about why we have two parts of congress and three branches of our government. Students are learning about the Constitutional Convention and checks and balances.
Sixth Grade News from Ms. West, Ms. Glenda and Ms. Alexis
This week, the sixth grade class started a new module in ELA where we are exploring the following question: How can design thinking help us to solve a critical problem? To think about this question, we are reading the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Learning about design thinking connects to our class project time, as well. This week, students constructed birdhouses, reusable fabric gift bags, and wooden winter village pieces as part of a fundraiser. We encountered challenges through the construction process (such as the fact that the holes we drilled as the “door” in the birdhouses were too small) and had to consider other ways to finish our items. This creative thinking is a key component of the design process and will give students first-hand experience to relate to during our ELA unit.
News from Ms. Prew
Another math activity you will see in math classrooms here at Sanderson is called How Many? Check out the example below! :) aprew@mtrsd.org
Library News from Ms. Wilson
This week I wanted to share a few recent highlights from the library with a few photos. Enjoy! From left to right: Pre-K reading to library “Reading Buddies;” 6th graders competing to build the tallest tower with notecards on which they had written things they were thankful for; 5th grade decoding a secret message with letters found in library books they had to find by call number.
Mindful Movement News from Ms. Sue
So Much Gratitude, as a whole school we have been talking about the amount of gratitude we have in our lives. The end of the year, the change of the seasons and of course extra time with family and friends gives us opportunities to acknowledge all that we are grateful for. Thank You to Third Grade for helping me hang up the Piles and Piles of Gratitude leaf display…many hands had this up in no time!
Instrumental News from Ms. Julie
Congratulations to our third-grade recorder students and to our new school orchestra for their wonderful performances at all-school! It was the first time “on stage” for both of these groups and they took it all in stride. Great work everyone! In the coming weeks, the orchestra, band, and third-grade recorders will be focusing on learning new music for our upcoming Winter Concert to be held on December 15th. Keep practicing and have fun!
District News
Upcoming Site Visits - Developing Culturally Responsive Practices and Inclusive Learning Environments:
As part of the district strategic plan, we are committed to nurturing the culture of our schools so that all students feel a sense of belonging, have access to rigorous curriculum and instruction, and develop understanding and respect for diversity within our communities and the wider world.
For the last two years, a district leadership team made up of teachers, administrators, and a school committee member has participated in professional development, supported by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), meant to educate us as individuals and teams to make our practices and overall school system more equitable and inclusive. The next step in the process is to be visited by an outside team that will help us audit our system.
Over the course of two days this winter, the outside team will visit our schools, observe classes, and interview educators, students, community members, and caregivers about their experiences. We will use their findings to help us understand our areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, incorporating the information into a multiyear plan to become a more culturally responsive learning community.
We will keep you informed about the process and the development of our plan over the coming months.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Superintendent Sheryl Stanton sstanton@mtrsd.org, or Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Sarah Jetzon sjetzon@mtrsd.org
Community News
Check out what is happening in our area!
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