Weekly Newsletter
September 8, 2022
News from Principal Emma Liebowitz
At Sanderson Academy we are learning about and practicing C.A.R.E.S. This stands for cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy and self-control. As the year progresses students will learn about these themes that help us all be good citizens.
News from School Office
If you haven’t returned the paperwork that was sent home last week, please do so as soon as possible. It’s important that we have current and up-to -te information.For those that already have, thank you!
Staffing Updates
We welcome some new staff members as we start the school year.
Mrs. Ashley Vandermark is our new Physical Education Teacher.
Ms. Kate Nevins is our new Cafeteria Manager.
We are still seeking a part-time Instrumental Teacher, part-time Cafeteria Assistant and a part-time Evening Custodian. Please spread the word!
PTO News
Events/Calendar
Wednesday, September 14: Open House - 6:00 - 7:00
Wednesday, September 21: 1:50 Release
Wednesday, September 28: PICTURE DAY
Wednesday, September 28: 1:50 Release
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
Open House
Open House is being held on Wednesday, September 14 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. We hope you can attend!!
Local Education Council (LEC) News
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/kod-xkgs-fya
Or dial: (US) +1 732-663-9595 PIN: 143 832 134#
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
Greetings from the health office! With the return to school and the change in seasons, it is expected that there will be an increase in illnesses- please continue to keep your child home when sick and reach out to me so their absence is excused and I can give you instructions for their return to school. Thank you!!
See below for some other tips for staying healthy during the school year:
1.Encourage frequent handwashing, especially before meals and after using the bathroom.
2. Stay up to date with regular doctor’s visits and immunizations.
3. Encourage an early to bed routine and healthy diet. Sleep and diet are both so, so important for keeping our immune system working its best.
4. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!! Drink plenty of water- it really does help!
Please refer to the district page for the Covid-19 guidelines (click on the covid-19 letter): https://www.mtrsd.org/Helpful-Links
Preschool News from Ms. Freeman
Preschoolers are beginning to learn about each other and how to be a part of a group. We are exploring our classroom, our school, and its campus. This class loves nature, animals, and watching our caterpillar in the science center. They also enjoy building and playing in the Block Area, assembling puzzles, searching for shells and sharks teeth in the sand table, and being outside!
We have 16 preschoolers starting the school year. We welcome 10 new students and are happy to see 6 returning friends. This class is curious, friendly, and eager to be a part of our Sanderson family. We look forward to a wonderful year together!
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie
What a delightful beginning to our new preschool year! Our returning students have been supportive and helpful as we welcomed new friends into our class. We are learning the rhythm of our day, moving from one activity to the next, and exploring our indoor and outdoor classrooms. Our first day back in the woods was magical! We checked all of our fairy houses and found them in good repair–some needing just a little sprucing up–but all intact and ready for another year. We learned the boundaries of the outdoor classroom and all about the “magic door” that closes behind us when we enter the woods and opens when we gather together to return to school. At circle time, we sing a song that helps us learn everyone’s name and we greet each other in turn. In our indoor classroom, we are watching monarch caterpillars–one is just about ready to begin making its chrysalis. We had a wonderful time with our third grade buddies, getting to know them, and talking about our hopes and dreams for this new year. It’s been a busy first week! We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Miss Stacey for fixing the rocking pony in the front playground! It was wonderful to see it there when we returned. Thank you Miss Stacey!
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah
We have started our first science unit studying how monarch caterpillars grow and change into butterflies. So far, we have been reading books and observing the caterpillars as they are eating huge amounts of milkweed in their tank in our classroom. We have also started learning some songs and fingerplays to help us learn about the changes that happen to a caterpillar as it grows into a butterfly. See if your child remembers the song we sang! (Starts with “First comes the butterfly that lays an egg… Tune of “Up on the Rooftop”).
First Grade News from Ms. Wyckoff
This week first graders are continuing to learn and practice classroom routines for the various parts of our day. We are beginning to think about our Hopes and Dreams for this school year. We began by reading Matthew’s Dream by Leo Lionni. First graders are hoping to do a lot of math, visit the far far woods, learn how to write lowercase letters and learn how to read! We are also learning what math and ELA rotations look like. First graders have done a fantastic job sharing materials, keeping their voice volume at an appropriate group level (level 2) and working towards listening to one another with care. It’s going to be a wonderful year in first grade!
Second Grade News from Ms. Robertson
As we transitioned back to school and to full days, we also saw August evolve into September, which means the start of our Number Corner activities. This month we will be using our Number Corner activities to practice calendar skills, to look for patterns, to tell time, and to build equations. (See a sample of our September Number Corner calendar below.) During our morning meeting time we have also been practicing our math skills with an activity called “Count Around”. This week the focus has been on counting by 10s to 500.
This week we have also been reading aloud books about dragons during our snack time. As we have listened to stories such as Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and Old MacDonald Had a Dragon by Ken Baker, we have been thinking about our own pet dragons. If we had a pet dragon, we pictured what it would like and where it would live. We also thought about its favorite foods and activities it enjoys doing. Currently we are drawing pictures of our dragons and will then write stories about them, using some of the details we have been imagining.
We have also been using some of our ELA (English Language Arts) time to review literacy skills, such as rhyming words, word families, and syllables. Using a poem called “Back to School”, we practiced breaking words such as summer, carries, and vacation into syllables. We also brainstormed words that rhyme with fall, such as hall, stall, crawl, doll, and haul, and discussed the different spellings of “all”: -all, -awl, -oll, and -aul. To extend our work with rhyming words and word families, we also enjoyed a story called Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas.
Next Wednesday, September 14th, from 6:00-7:00, we look forward to having our second families visit our classroom. Your second grader will have the opportunity to show you around our classroom and to share some of the assignments they have been working on during the first few days of school. It will also be another opportunity for you to ask questions and to sign up for parent teacher conferences, which are scheduled for November 3rd and November 4th. We look forward to seeing you then!
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole
We have been using our third grade routines and expectations to get underway with some fun projects in the past week. On Friday we visited our garden and began the process of harvesting. We collected a fine bunch of dry beans and some beautiful onions which we will use in a pot of soup when the weather calls for it. We also harvested our corn cobs, which were very small due to the lack of rain. Some students also cut the flowers off of the basil plants so they could focus their energy on making larger leaves instead of flowers. We can’t wait to make pesto soon!
We also got to meet and spend some time with our preschool buddies this week. We were able to get to know a few things about them and help them write their hopes and dreams for their preschool year. (See pictures below) We also got to play a quick round of duck-duck-goose with them, which was adorable.
In other news, we scheduled our first field trip and are in need of parent volunteers to be drivers. On September 30th we will spend the day at Mt. Greylock as part of our studies of Massachusetts. We are looking forward to making lots of tie-dyed t-shirts from the Local Goods orders that are coming in. I hope to see you next Wednesday evening at our Open House!
Fourth Grade News from Ms. Lagoy
Fourth graders have been hard at work this week exploring our first unit of study in our new English Language Arts program: poetry. We are reading Love That Dog and will have an opportunity to read lots of wonderful poems, starting with “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams. Be sure to ask your kiddo about poetry characteristics and see if they can summarize “The Red Wheelbarrow” for you. Students learned that a summary should provide the title and author, and briefly describe what it is about, tell about the theme and supporting details, and give a brief statement of the main points. During math, we have had an opportunity to revisit some multiplication strategies from last year and conducted our first problem string. You can ask your child to talk to you about what problem strings are and why we use them in math. In geography, we have started our mapping unit. Each student is creating a grid map of their bedroom. I hope to see you all Wednesday night for our Open House. There will be a scavenger hunt to lead you around our fourth grade classroom.
Fifth Grade News from Ms. Johnson
Fifth grade has been working on and sharing hopes and dreams and creating class rules so that each of us can reach our hopes and dreams. In math we have started exploring volume concepts. Students used cubes to see how many ways they could make rectangular prisms out of twenty-four cubes. Our EL Education program (reading and writing) is focusing on human rights. We have started reading Esperanza Rising and have been looking at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how the book connects to it. In social studies, we are learning about the original colonies and in science we are learning about the scientific process. We did a lab to see how many drops of water will fit on a penny using the scientific process.
Sixth Grade News from Ms.Lilly
This week we began our new ELA program by starting to read Percy Jackson and The Olympians, Book 1 - The Lightning Thief. The students were very excited to jump into the book! We also started our math program this week starting with our first topic called Prime Time. This unit focuses on factors and multiples. We started playing a fun game called The Factor Game. After we played we discussed different strategies to help us win the game. The second time we played the students were far more strategic with their moves. Finally, we had the opportunity to lead an activity at our first all school meeting. Students volunteered to introduce the activity, demonstrate, and lead. The sixth graders were wonderful role models for the rest of the school as to how we take on the responsibility of leading the school in fun activities. I look forward to many more opportunities for the sixth graders to take on the role of being school leaders.
Library News from Ms. Robin Wilson
Book checkout has officially begun! You and your child can explore the collection from home by visiting the Sanderson website and selecting ‘Library Catalog’ under the Programs heading. You can also click here. I encourage you to look at the books your child brings home. Have conversations, ask questions, and read along! Please encourage your child to take care of the materials and return them on time. As a reminder, you will find the due date for your child’s library book on a sticker on their Thursday folder. I look forward to seeing many of you at Open House next week!
Check out the Belding Library’s programs for kids this September. Click here for their calendar. September 17 is Ms. Sue’s book reading and movement workshop to celebrate her new book, Big Words for Little Hearts
Save the date for the book fair! October 31 - November 4.
News from Ms. Prew
Please check out the 2022 - 2023 Title I Family/Caregiver Information Letter as well as the 2022 - 2023 Title I School - Family Compact. Both documents provide information about the Title I mathematics program here at Sanderson. A double-sided copy of these documents will also be sent home in each student's Thursday folder. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please email me at aprew@mtrsd.org. :)
Mindful Movement News from Ms. Sue
It has been so WONDERFUL connecting with each child this week! Yeah for a new school year! We have talked about expectations in class, highlights of our summer and done some work around what it’s like to be a Welcoming person to others. Mantra for this month: I will smile at everyone! So happy for the rain our area has received this week!!!
Instrumental News
Community News:
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