It seems like every year the February Break cannot come soon enough. We are at a peak time for students and staff becoming sick, so a vacation will be very helpful. Our nurses' advice is always timely about staying home when sick, continually washing hands and using tissue (or elbows) when sneezing. It pays off!

In previous editions, I have written about our concerns of students bringing in smart phones and watches. I additionally discussed the harms of our children watching scary, violent and inappropriate TV shows and movies. I also want to reach out to discuss the harm of our children playing online video games. We have students (almost all older ones) reporting they are gaming online late into the night, including school nights. Gaming can be a form of addiction and we believe it can compromising our children's health, growth and education. If you see this as a challenge in your family, please reach out - we are your educational partners.

Congratulations to our fifth graders for successfully completing the DARE Program with Corporal Brie. There's a photo of the celebration below!

Three more attachments included below. One on registering for our upcoming Science Fair, one for a Kids Night Out Fundraiser and the final for an informational evening.

Can you believe we are over 100 days? Have an awesome Valentine's weekend; take some time to read with your child.

Mark Trifilio

Orchard School's library is always a busy place, but this has been especially true over the past couple of weeks. With the exception of the three classes that were scheduled on Friday's Snow Day, last week every other class Skyped with another class somewhere around the US for World Read Aloud Week. There even was a visit with high school students in London!! Student shared favorite books and made new friends in Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and Texas. World Read Aloud Week calls global attention to the importance of celebrating the power of words and reading aloud. Five Orchard School classes were fortunate to be able to connect with four authors and/or illustrators who shared their books, as well.

This past week, we celebrated the first of two "I Love to Read and Write Weeks." In the library, kindergarten through third grade students played "Red Clover Bingo." This game was a celebration of Vermont's student choice book award program, the Red Clover Book Award. When a "Bingo" was achieved, students selected a free book as their prize. Luckily, EVERY STUDENT WON! We were also celebrating International Book Giving Day, as noted on the bookplate inside each free book. Fourth and fifth graders played a similar game, but with their Mock Caldecott choices. These twenty-four Mock Caldecott books had been evaluated by teams of fourth and fifth grade students for several weeks prior to the actual Caldecott Medal presentation on January 27th. Again, we played Mock Caldecott Bingo until EVERY STUDENT WON! It was so exciting to give away over 400 books during this first week of "I Love to Read and Write."

Next week's Core will have information about the second "I Love to Read and Write" week.

Donna Sullivan-Macdonald

Library Media & Instructional Technology Specialist