Weekly Newsletter
January 12, 2023
Message from Principal Emma Liebowitz
Save the date! On January 30, we are heading to Greenfield for an all school ice skating event. Thank you to the PTO for paying for the rink and skate rental! Caregivers are welcome to attend. We will be sending a permission slip home next week. We hope you can join us!
Events/Calendar
Monday, January 16 - No School
Wednesday, January 18 - All School Meeting at 2:15
Wednesday, January 25 - 1:50 Dismissal
Saturday, January 28 - PTO Dance - Hollywood Theme - 6:00-7:30
Monday, January 30 - All School Ice Skating in Greenfield
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
PTO Dance!
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
Greetings from the health office!!
Over the next couple of weeks we will be going back to basics and I will be visiting classrooms to reinforce our healthy habits at school. We will discuss hand washing- when, why and how, cough etiquette, staying home when ill and other healthy habits such as nutrition, hydration and sleep. I will tailor each discussion for the developmental stages in each grade and it will be fun to see the kiddos in their element. Please continue the teaching at home and go over it with your children. Hoping for a healthy 2023!
Reminder regarding winter clothing: Students need to have winter boots each day even if there is no snow-it is muddy, wet and cold. They should have a pair of school shoes to change into in class daily but especially on Tue/Thur when we have Physical Education.
Jackets and snow pants are required- even if it is not snowy they provide another layer of warmth as well as keep pants dry. It is a good idea to have an extra pair of pants at school for wet pants.
Hat and gloves are required depending on the weather and temperature, so it is a good idea to have them daily as well. Thank you! And please let me know if you have any need for clothing as I can help with that.
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie
We are continuing our learning about animals in winter, sharing what we already know, and discovering new things. On a recent walk to our outdoor classroom, we identified rabbit and deer tracks in the snow and we knew that those animals stay nearby in the winter. We have been noticing birds in the trees that are adapting to the cold and we talked about birds that have already migrated to find warmer weather. The recent cold temperatures have frozen all the little streams that used to flow alongside the road to the salt shed. We have been enjoying playing there, sliding on the ice, sliding down the snow mound and finding things frozen under the clear ice. Inside, we used circles of white paper to make a snowman face, added a hat, then glued on more circles below –one for each letter of our names. We displayed them together and noticed how some were tall and some were short, depending on how many letters were in our names. They came out beautifully!
Preschool News from Ms. Freeman
Preschoolers are learning about rectangles, squares, circles, and triangles. We plan to use these basic shapes to create collages, snow people, and other works of art. We will use a variety of art tools and materials which will help strengthen our fine motor skills. We will have fun learning about shapes by singing songs, playing games, and going on Shape Walks to notice shapes all around us! The photos show us creating shapes using geoboards.
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah
For social studies, we started a unit on Economics. This week’s focus was learning about wants versus needs with things that we buy. To put needs in perspective, we compared human needs to those of our pets. We read a book about a boy who wanted cooler sneakers and discussed if this was a want or a need. Then we did a sorting activity to compare wants and needs. We discovered that some things depend on the situation. For one person, getting a new bike might be a want, but for someone without a car that has to get to their job, a new bike could be a need. Kids were very thoughtful when deciding what was a want or a need.
First Grade News from Ms. Wyckoff
This week first graders are focusing on setting a goal or new hope and dream for 2023. Children looked back at their hope and dream from September to see if they had accomplished their goal and if not, if they wished to keep the goal or change it. Many children hope to read more books, visit with siblings at school and meet up with their buddies at recess.
All of our trout eggs have now hatched and have moved into the alevin stage. During this stage of the life cycle the baby trout will continue to feed off of their yolk sac until it's gone. First graders started a trout journal where they will write and draw as we observe the changes that will be happening to the trout over the next several months.
Second Grade News from Ms. Robertson
This week during our reading block, we have been learning about compare and contrast. We learned that when we compare things, we tell about their similarities, or the parts that are the same or almost the same. We also learned that when we contrast things, we are telling about their differences. We started our lessons by comparing and contrasting how ham sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are similar and different. Then referencing the knowledge we had about the boat schools in Bangladesh, we compared and contrasted them with our school. One way our schools are alike is that we study several of the same subjects, such as reading and math. One way our schools are different is that a boat school can fit 30-35 students at a time, while Sanderson Academy can accommodate over 200 students.
During our math periods this week, our lessons have focused on the folktale Jack and the Beanstalk. During Jack’s adventures with the beanstalks, he planted some seeds that grew beanstalks that produced extra-large beans of varying lengths. We used unifix cubes to measure the lengths of the beans, and after learning about perimeter, we continued our measurement activities by finding the perimeters of the garden plots Jack planted.
This week we have also been busy during our Number Corner time, predicting what our daily calendar markers will reveal and then looking at the markers to see what patterns we notice. For example, every fifth day, a new bar graph or picture graph has been revealed. The next four days show equations related to the graph. We then use the information shown in the graphs to pose possible survey questions and to answer comparison questions, such as “How many more?” or “How many fewer?” See the picture of our January calendar below and ask your child to share what patterns they notice in the markers.
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole
Since we have a federal holiday coming up in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, third grade has spent some time learning about his life and message this week. With our buddies we explored our similarities and differences and celebrated the diversity of our group. We have been learning a “Peace Rap,” which tells how to solve disagreements and conflicts peacefully. The class will perform the rap at the All School assembly on January 18th, which we as a class are running. We have also been discussing constructive ways to solve problems rather than getting angry or physical.
In other news, we have begun learning about a famous artist who lived in Massachusetts, as a continuation of our focus on our fair commonwealth. Each student has picked one painting of Norman Rockwell’s and has begun coming up with a story to explain the painting. We are looking forward to a field trip on February 2nd with our guests from Mexico to see more of his works at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge.
Sixth Grade News from Ms. Lilly
This week we have finished up setting goals for this second half of the year. We thought about how we could positively make an impact at home, school, and in our community. In ELA we’ve been writing narratives where we’ve created our own characters and inserted them into a scene from Percy Jackson. We’ve also been working on finishing up our math unit “Comparing Bits and Pieces”. This unit has covered so much! We learned about rates, unit rates, percents, decimals, and fractions. We will wrap this unit up with an end of unit test at the beginning of next week. Afterwards, we will move on to our next unit “Let’s Be Rational”. In social studies we have continued to learn about ancient civilizations. We are working our way through ancient Mesopotamia at the moment and have assembled timelines to learn about the different empires.
News from Ms. Prew
Our goal is for students to experience confidence and joy in math. By speaking positively with children about math, you have the ability to change their brain chemistry and make them more receptive to the concepts they are learning in school. Here’s what you can do to help develop positive mathematical thinking:
Praise students for their perseverance and efforts: “I’m so proud of you for how hard you worked on that!”
Offer regular encouragement: “You can do it!”, “I know you will figure this out.”, “You got this!”, “We can figure this out together.”
Remind students that struggle is productive and useful and that when you make a mistake, your brain grows. When you fix it, it grows even more!
Play games together, solve puzzles together.
Have a good time doing math together!
Enjoy! :) aprew@mtrsd.org
MTRSD Elementary Libraries Newsletter
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