We had such a wonderful day hiking together on Tuesday. The weather was gorgeous and our students showed such perseverance with many of them making it all the way to the summit which is over eight miles round trip.

We hope to see many of you at the Ashfield Fall Festival this weekend!

We will not publish a newsletter next week (October 12).

Friday, October 6 - Third Grade Field Trip to Mt. Greylock

Saturday/Sunday October 7/8 - Ashfield Fall Festival

Monday, October 9 - No School

Monday, October 16 - LEC Meeting at 3:30 (meet.google.com/uso-ujqf-jcq)

Tuesday, Ocober 17 - Virtual Principal Coffee Hour at 9:00 (meet.google.com/poo-eybw-xcy)

Wednesday, October 18 - 1:50 Release

Monday, October 23 - Virutal Principal Hour at 3:30 (meet.google.com/bde-sqed-mei)

Wednesday, October 25 - 1:50 Release

Tuesday, October 31 - Sugar Rush 5K

Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.

Did you know that the money raised from walking taco sales at the Fall Festival gives each teacher $30 per kid in their class to spend on activities and field trips? This is such an important fundraiser for us and we still need help especially on Sunday. Please click on the link below to sign up. Thank you so much to everyone that has signed up! You will receive an email reminder from me soon.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080F44AEA929A3F49-fall1#/

The next virtual PTO meeting will be Thursday, October 12 at 7:00pm. Click on the link to join. We will be voting on assemblies and discussing the Holiday Boutique.

https://meet.google.com/zyq-dftn-bzj

Greetings from the health office! Sanderson Academy has a potential opportunity to have dental care provided at school with the SMILES program. However, in order for them to come to the school we would need at least 15 students signed up- Please reach out to me if this service would benefit your family @ lalmeida@mtrsd.org. Thank you!

Heads up that we have had a few cases of conjunctivitis (pink eye) at school, please keep your child home and reach out to me if they present with any symptoms. Symptoms of conjunctivitis are eye discharge, eyes “crusted shut” in the morning, eye redness and irritation not related to seasonal allergies and eyes feeling gritty (like sand is in it).

It can be hard to determine when your child should stay home, rule of thumb is if there is persistent and frequent discharge you should stay home until symptoms have improved greatly or until you have been evaluated by your physician and cleared to return to school and/or on antibiotic drops/ointment for at least 24 hours. Clear watery discharge is less concerning and typically from a virus such as the common cold. Bacterial conjunctivitis has thicker, persistent, yellow/green discharge and needs treatment with antibiotic eye drops before returning to school. Conjunctivitis is very contagious- please continue to reinforce frequent hand washing at home and avoidance of touching eyes, nose and mouth. Please reach out to myself and your child’s healthcare provider if your child(ren) develops any symptoms of conjunctivitis.

Where can you find a little red house with no windows, no doors, a chimney on top, and a star inside? Ask your preschooler!

This week we are learning more about apples and doing many apple related projects and activities. We moved our bodies to an apple rhyme and sang an apple song to the tune of Bingo. Many preschoolers talked about going apple picking with their families and some were enjoying fresh apples at snack. Two favorite projects were our tissue paper apples and our apple names. Look for the tissue paper apples hanging in the classroom window. They look like stained glass.

For our apple names, we read Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg, better known as Dr. Suess. Animals balance apples on their heads, so we thought it would be fun to do a project looking like we are balancing apples on our heads. Instead of 10 apples, each preschooler is balancing apples with letters to spell their name.

The photo shows our apple name project.

We had an amazing time hiking on Mountain Day. Our third grade buddies were so accommodating and carried many backpacks to lighten the load for their younger buddies. We hiked to our favorite Mountain Day spot and had a snack and conversation before exploring what the forest had to offer. Children were so engaged in exploration, fort construction, fairy house building and even schemes to make traps. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and listened to a story about the magic of building fairy houses in the forest.

The third graders made special journals for each child to make rubbings of natural objects in. Children delighted in searching for different species of leaves and other natural objects to make their rubbings of. It was a magical day filled with laughter, friendship and nature. Thank you to those family members that were able to accompany us on this wonderful excursion!

In literacy this week, we are continuing our focus on toys and play by learning about describing words that we can use to tell about our toys. We are focusing on the attributes of color, size, shape, and texture. And we are using riddles as a way to think more carefully about the attributes of our toys.

We also introduced sentence format (uppercase line leader and end mark) as a “frame” for our written thoughts, just like we put special photos in a frame to show they are important to us. We practiced changing the first letter to be uppercase and adding a period to the end of short sentences.

We have been busy in second grade lately! We have been learning about different animals and their habitats, so last Thursday we took a walk out to the vernal pond in the woods. We discovered very small frogs and tadpoles that were changing into frogs, it was a great end to our day! In ELA we have been working on writing complete sentences that have a “naming part” the subject and a “telling part” the predicate. We also have been checking our sentences for capital letters, punctuation, understanding, and spacing. We have seen a lot of improvements with our writing in just a short amount of time! Finally we had a great Mountain Day on Tuesday. We had a lot of fun hiking with our 5th grade buddies and they helped us so much through all the mud!

Third grade had a great day hiking with preschool buddies on Tuesday for Mountain Day. Talking about it afterwards, the class was able to admit it was both challenging and fun to have to help their little friend throughout the day. They talked about what they tried, and what worked and what didn’t, in keeping them safe and happy. It was a big day of personal growth for many third graders!

In math this week we have been learning about measuring for length and gathering two-digit numbers of length around the room. Learning that you have to analyze a measuring device before using it was new information for many students. For example, some rulers have a gap between the zero and the end of the ruler. We will be using these numbers to practice addition and subtraction soon. In Number Corner, the new month brought new routines. This month we are learning about milliliters, and how many of them make a liter.

Hope to see many friends having fun at Fall Festival this weekend!

We have some new 16-word poems to share with you this week.

From Brolen:

So much depends upon

a loud dirt bike

that will take you

really far without stopping.

From Hawthorne:

So much depends upon

a long slide,

with fluffy snow at the bottom,

and slippery ice.

From Milo:

So much depends upon

a computer,

waiting for someone

to turn it on,

and learn information.

Students enjoyed the culmination of our spaghetti tower STEM project. We had several towers, this year, that stood over 10 inches high, and some that topped 20 inches. It was wonderful to see the problem solving and perseverance that took place in our fourth grade classroom when students were constructing their towers.

Fifth grade had a wonderful day hiking yesterday. They hiked with their second grade buddies and it was great to see the interactions between the older and younger students. In math, fifth grade has been working on multiplication and more recently division. Students have been using ratio tables and area models to solve problems. In ELA, students have been using note-catchers to record how different characters react to the same event, then they are writing character reaction paragraphs. In social studies, students are wrapping up their notes and visual representations of what they have learned about the formation of the colonies. Next week they will present what they have learned and created to the class.

By: Alaina Toothaker and Elliott Franetovich

This is what’s happening with sixth grade this week:

Tuesday we had Mountain Day, where most of the sixth grade class hiked 8 miles to Apple Valley Overlook. We hiked with our First grade buddies, and at the 2 mile point, some of them turned around and went back to school, but most of them stayed with us and did the whole 8 mile trip!

The sixth grade class has been very productive with project time. The garden crew has been working very hard to keep our gardens nice but they have also been working on our garden that they have created.The Maker’s Space has been coming along so that we can put some new furniture in it, and the huge bucket of legos has been sorted but there is still a lot to go. Also people in our class have also been planning for the Fall Festival, because we are doing the Dime Toss game.

During social studies this week, we have been working on a Stone Age project where the class splits into different groups and studies different parts of the stone age, such as stone age art, food, tools, and more. We are building a website about it, called Exploring Human Origins.

A special thanks to Mrs. Glenda for helping us organize the Dime Toss, and to Sage and Linda for helping with the garden!

Happy October! October is National Hispanic-Latinx heritage month, which is a special time to celebrate and honor the culture and contributions of Hispanic and Latinx Americans. In the library, we will be reading books by Hispanic and Latinx authors and illustrators.

Pre-K - 2nd grade students have been learning about library citizenship, and 4th - 6th graders are beginning to explore how books can serve as mirrors and windows. Books are mirrors when we see ourselves in the story, and books are windows when they help us see and understand people who are different from us. Some of our discussion questions have included: Do you see yourself in the books at school? What might it feel like if you didn’t? Why is it important to read both mirror and window books? This is a theme that we will return to throughout the year.

Finally, I’d like to give a big THANK YOU to the PTO for purchasing a set of books for the 5th and 6th grade book club. After narrowing it down, the book club has decided to read Air, by Monica Roe. I am so excited to get these books into the kids’ hands!

Check out this link to The Math Learning Center Apps. These apps may be helpful for you and your kiddos to complete homework assignments. They also work well for simple exploration and/or math games. Let me know what you think! :) aprew@mtrsd.org

About Mohawk Trail SEPAC

The Special Education Parent Advisory Council is an advisory group led by parents within our community. We are looking to support each other and help the school district to better serve its students. The SEPAC is open to all caregivers within the district with an IEP or 504 plan, and to interested members of the community. Please reach out to us to learn more!

SEPAC meetings

We meet monthly via Zoom. Upcoming meetings: Sept 28, Oct 23, Nov 27 at 6:30 pm

We welcome caregivers, staff, and interested members of the community to learn about SEPAC and meet local families. The public meeting will be followed by a private caregiver support discussion.

Email us to learn more: mohawksepac@gmail.com

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MohawktrailSEPAC

Dear Community Members,

We need your help to shape future health priorities for West County. Please use the QR Code on the following page or the link below to take the Community Health Survey. To improve the health of everyone in West County, our voices need to be heard. Anyone aged fourteen and older can take the survey. It will only take 15minutes to complete and is confidential.

Taking the survey is voluntary and easy! Click on this link: www.mass.gov/healthsurvey, or use the QR code below.

Once you have completed the survey, use the QR code below to sign up for a $5.00 gift card to Mo’s Fudge Factor. This is the Mary Lyon Foundation’s way of saying thank you for ensuring that the voices and needs of our nine towns are heard loud and clear. If you have questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at kbaker@marylyonfoundation.org or call us at (413) 625-2555.