We have two summer learning opportunities for our elementary students for 2023!

It is time to register your child for Summer Learning. Please use the following link to sign your child(dren) up by April 7th. An early registration will ensure that we have the staff and resources to host a robust summer learning program.

Explore and Expand Summer Learning Program is for rising 1st through 4th graders! This four-week long program is designed to support student learning by bolstering school-year skills and helping to fight summer learning loss. Students will receive 1.5 hours of academic support from ConVal Certified Teachers and Tutors. An additional hour of the program is reserved for enrichment exploration, including drumming and cartooning residencies.

Additional Details

• July 5 through July 27

• 3 Mornings a Week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday)

• 9:00 am - 12 pm

• Location: Peterborough Elementary and Antrim Elementary

• Transportation will be provided

• Class Size for Explore and Expand: 15 students to 1 teacher

• Classes/Groups will be mixed grades

Middle School Summer Academy is offered to rising 5th and 6th graders! This four-week long program is designed to introduce students to middle and high school learning opportunities while bolstering school-year skills and helping to fight summer learning loss. Students in the Middle School Summer Academy have the opportunity to participate in a Residency, similar to Explore and Expand or participate in the high school Theater program.

Additional Details

• July 5 through July 27

• 4 Mornings a Week (Monday through Thursday)

• 9:00 am - 12:15pm (12:15 allows students to participate in the Theater program)

• Location: ConVal High School

• Transportation will be provided

• Class Size : 15 students to 1 Teacher

Similar to last year, all summer programming is free including transportation and lunch. Please note that we are working to increase the number of buses so that there are additional common pick-up and drop-off locations for students. We will work closely with town summer Recreation Programs to coordinate so that children may participate in both rec. programming as well as ConVal summer learning.

Please reach out with any questions!

Best,

Amy Janoch

Director of Learning Recovery

ajanoch@conval.edu

Dear GES Families and Friends,

What a wonderful week of Circus last week! Huge thanks to the GES PTO for supporting the Circus Residency. It was so much fun to spend the week with Troy and see the smiles on everyone's faces! I'm always amazed at how he is able to get every child involved and trying new things! There is such a feeling of accomplishment when they try something new and hard and master it! It was so nice to see so many friends and family in the audience! We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did!

The month of March flew by, didn't it? Here we are in April with only 8 weeks of school left! We have lots of learning left to do and will be busy growing our brains all spring. Spring brings the last academic benchmarking session of the school year. Kindergarten students will participate in the NWEA-MAP testing in reading and math for the first time in May, along with 1st-4th graders. Our 3rd and 4th graders will also participate in the NH-SAS statewide assessments. These measures provide a snapshot of student growth and learning as they move through K-12th grade.

The School Board approved the final day of school for students. Our last day with students will be Friday, June 16th. This is a half day and dismissal will be at noon. Speaking of end of year celebrations-our 4th graders will perform the play Pirates of Grammar Island and celebrate the end of their elementary experience on Wednesday, June 14th at 6:00pm.

I've included important dates through the end of the year below. We will be adding events in the coming weeks, so be sure to check the newsletter and website each week so you don't miss anything!

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES-PLEASE CHECK AND ADD TO YOUR CALENDAR!

4/10-4/14/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker. Don't forget your sneakers! Mrs. Aborn will also be here for a Library Residency.

4/17-4/21/23: Special of the Week: Art with Mr. Shapiro

4/24-4/28/23: APRIL VACATION-NO SCHOOL!

5/1-5/5/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker. Don't forget your sneakers!

5/8-5/12/23: Special of the Week: Library with Mrs. Aborn

5/15-5/19/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker. Don't forget your sneakers!

5/22-5/25/23: Special of the Week: Music with Mrs. Neillsen

5/24/23: SPRING CONCERT PERFORMANCE at 6:00PM! Mark your calendars now! Come and enjoy a musical performance by our K-4 students!

5/26/23: NO SCHOOL-Teacher PD Day

5/29/23: NO SCHOOL-Memorial Day

5/30-6/2/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker

6/5-6/9/23: Special of the Week: Art with Mr. Shapiro

6/12-6/16/23: Special of the Week: PE/Health with Mrs. Parker

6/14/23: 4TH GRADE CELEBRATION AND PLAY PERFORMANCE AT 6:00PM. Details coming soon!

6/16/23: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! This is a half day and dismissal will be at noon!

• Math: In math, we finished our addition and subtraction to 10, module 4. We began module 5, which looks at numbers 10-20 and breaks the numbers apart into groups of 10 ones and more ones.

• Literacy: In literacy this week, we practiced reading and spelling words with y, x, and v sounds as well as some new heart words like look, are, and was. We ‘ve had a lot of fun using our new reading skills to play games like Blah Blah Blah, Syllable Four Corners, and Boom Clap!

• Science & Social Studies: This week we have talked all about maps. Google Earth has been very popular, exploring places on the map that we know and some that we have never been to. We will continue working on maps next week.

• Read Aloud: We began a new chapter book this week. We started reading The Chocolate Touch. We also read Never Let a Unicorn Scribble, Me on the Map, and The Map Book. Mrs. Mayer also joined us to read Cozy in Love and Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.

• SEL: We continue to talk about strategies to use when we have a big feeling, and how to identify our feelings throughout the day.

• Math: This week was all about adding two 2-digit numbers. We have been learning different strategies to solve these equations, including drawing quick pictures of tens and ones, adding our tens and tens and ones and ones, and breaking our smaller number apart into tens and ones to add to the bigger number. For example, if you have 27+12, you break apart 12 into 10 and 2, then you add 27+10=37, then 37+2=39. They have gotten really good at this strategy. We finished up module 4 today and will be moving on to measurement for the 2 weeks before break.

• Literacy: In literacy, we focused on common suffixes in words like -s, -ing, -es, and -ed. Did you know that suffix -ed has three different sounds? We practiced writing sentences that use language from the prompt and give details in response to books we read this week. We also did a compare and contrast activity with fiction and nonfiction books.

• Science: In science, we finished our unit on energy this week. We studied light, sound, and heat learning all about how energy shapes the world around us.

• SEL: We talked about kindness and reviewed respectful learning behaviors.

• Read Alouds: This week we read Tek the Modern Caveboy, Hannah and Sugar, and Mango, Abuela, and Me. We also listened to each of our “Great Eight” March Madness books again so we could vote to narrow it down to the Final Four. We are in chapter 10 of Charlotte’s Web. Templeton’s egg caused a big stink when it exploded!

• Math: We practiced subtracting across zeros this week. We ended the week by taking the end of module assessment and students rocked it! I’m excited to keep practicing this skill throughout the year, but move into some fractions, time telling, and money in the coming weeks.

• Literacy: In literacy we learned about the rules for making a word plural. If a word ends in z, s, ch, sh, or x we add “es” (like branch to branches, or fox to foxes). If a word ends in a y, we change the y to i and add “es” (like party to parties, or puppy to puppies). Finally, any other word just gets an “s” (like dog to dogs or car to cars). We also focused on identifying the main idea and details to a text. In honor of poetry month, Mrs. LaChance helped us write some amazing poetry about clouds. It was a really fun way to practice adjectives and verbs.

• Science & Social Studies: We are working through our states of matter unit. We watched a video about solids, liquids, and gasses to prepare for some fun experiments with Mrs. Aborn next week.

• SEL: Working together, matching our reactions to the size of the problem, empathy

• Read Aloud: The Loser’s Club, It’s Disgusting and We Ate It

• Math: In math this week we tackled fractions on the number line! We also learned that you can only compare fractions when the whole is the same thanks to a little help from Hershey Chocolate Bars. It turns out that getting 1 whole chocolate bar is not always the best idea! What if you get a fun sized bar and end up missing out on ½ of a king sized bar!

• Literacy: In literacy this week we explored different narrative points of view. We found the difference between first and third person point of view and practiced identifying the different points of view in text and a few Pixar Shorts! In writing, we read a cool article about how our bodies fight germs and used information from the article to plan and write a quality paragraph!

• Science & Social Studies: We have started a new Mystery Science Unit called Animals Through Time! This week we learned that we learn how we can infer what the outside of an animal looked like by using clues about their skeleton. In the visual activity, Guess What These Animals Eat, we examined photos of skulls of both familiar animals and dinosaurs to figure out what each animal eats. We also learned how fossil dinosaur tracks reveal how quickly a dinosaur was running. In the activity, Outrunning CeeLo, we tried to figure out if we can outrun a dinosaur. Unfortunately, we cannot!

• SEL: This week we talked about the conflict escalator. Our actions can escalate or de-escalate a conflict. We read a true story called “The Pig War” about how a problem with a pig escalated so much that it almost became a war!

• Read Aloud:

• The Pig War

• Quarter Finals of March Madness!

• The Sour Grape (1) vs. Frank and Laverne (11)

• Mel Fell (10) vs. Frida (1)

• Norman Didn’t Do It (12) vs. Cranky Right Now (0)

• Math: In Math this week we talked about prime and composite numbers, we explored patterns, and talked about strategies for finding factors of composite numbers. We finished up Module 3 with an assessment Friday, students did very well. We will continue to practice multiplication and division. In the weeks to come we'll be diving into geometric shapes and angles along with fractions.

• Literacy: We finished our Poetry block this week. Students finished Love That Dog in small reading groups and discussed as a class what we learned about figurative language, and how poetry can be interpreted. We continue to work on suffixes and the rules we use when adding a consonant or vowel suffix to the end of a word.

• Social Studies/Science: We finished up our maps of New Hampshire. Students labeled major rivers, mountains and original towns and cities. Next week we will explore the state symbols with some fun art projects. We ended the week with a fun STEM challenge, to build catapults to shoot peeps across the room at their teacher!!

• SEL: We talked about what it means to try new things, and how struggling is part of learning. We watched a film about the brain and the connections or pathways that are made when we practice something new. The pathway, with continued practice, turns to highways, and those skills that used to be difficult become easier, and automatic.

• Read Aloud: We finished up Island last week, it is the first in a series, and some students have decided to read the second book independently. We finished up the March Madness reading bracket this week with The Girl Who Thought in Picture; the true story of Temple Grandon and Frida, by Jonah Winter. Both stories are about overcoming obstacles.

https://sites.google.com/conval.edu/lofstedt/home

• Kindergarten: In this week’s lesson, your child showed what they have learned about solving problems. They suggested ways to solve problems in different scenarios and drew a picture of themselves using a problem-solving strategy. If problems or disagreements arise at home, for example, between siblings, ask your child to suggest a way to help solve the problem.

• 1st grade: In this week’s lesson, your child learned that a kind act is something they can do to help someone feel good. They practiced suggesting kind acts to do for people in different scenarios. Encourage your child to think of a kind act they could do for someone, for example a sibling, grandparent, or neighbor.

• 2nd grade: In this week’s lesson, your child learned that empathy means feeling or understanding what someone else is feeling, and that empathy can lead to kindness. Ask your child to tell you what empathy means.

• 3rd grade: In this week’s lesson, your child learned how empathy—the ability to understand and feel how someone else is feeling—and kindness can help build new friendships. Ask your child what kind things they could do to build a friendship with someone.

• 4th grade: In this week’s lesson, your child practiced listening, asking questions, and observing to learn more about another person’s point of view. Discuss with your child how learning more about someone’s point of view can help you have empathy for them. Encourage your child to think of a time when they had empathy for someone or someone had empathy for them.

The ConVal School District has news blog to serve as a hub for the latest updates, information and news about the district’s schools, students, faculty, events and accomplishments.

The blog, ConValNews.com is integrated into the schools and District’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and will automatically broadcast news blog content onto these platforms, connecting directly with the district community.

With a clean, user-friendly and mobile responsive layout, the news blog allows for easy navigation throughout. It can be accessed on computers, cell phones and tablets. Community members can subscribe and be notified by email when new posts are published.

Parents/guardians, students, staff, and community members should still utilize the district’s main website, Convalsd.net, to access the District-wide calendar of events, contact information, school committee meeting notices and minutes, important documents and notices and to view general information about the district and its schools.