Weekly Newsletter
March 17, 2022
News from Principal Emma Liebowitz
Students in grades three through sixth will take the MCAS this spring. Each grade will have two sessions of Mathematics and two sessions of English Langauge Arts. Fifth grade has two additional sessions - Science, Technology and Engineering. It is important that students are in school on testing days. If your child(ren) will not be in attendance, please let the school know as soon as possible. Below is the schedule:
Third Grade:
March 31 and April 7 - English Language Arts
May 10 and May 12 - Mathematics
Fourth Grade:
April 12 and April 26 - English Language Arts
May 17 and May 24 - Mathematics
Fifth Grade:
March 29 and April 5 - English Language Arts
April 28 and April 29 - Mathematics
May 19 and May 20 - Science , Technology and Engineering
Sixth Grade:
April 1 and April 8 - English Language Arts
May 3 and May 5 - Mathematics
Events/Calendar
Thursday, March 24 - 12:30 Release for Caregiver/Teacher Conferences
Friday, March 25 - 12:30 Release for Caregiver/Teacher Conferences
Wednesday, March 30 - 1:50 Release
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
News from the School Office
PTO News
The COUNTRY PIE pizza orders are due this Friday March 18, 2022. The coupons will go home with your child in their Thursday folders.
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
This week I wanted to go over some of the health requirements necessary for school. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions :)
-Preschool and kindergarten students need to have a physical exam yearly as well as their most current immunization records. Immunization against infectious disease remains an important public health measure to keep our community safe and healthy. After your child has their physical or has an update in their immunization records it can be faxed to me at (413)628-4697.
-Another requirement mandated by the state of Massachusetts is to have a lead screening on file (typically done around 2-3 years of age).
-Fourth grade also has a physical exam requirement- all 4th grade students need to have a physical exam either within one year prior to 4th grade and/or before completion of the fourth grade school year which must be updated before starting fifth grade.
.-All students entering 7th grade are required to have a tdap booster and a meningococcal vaccine prior to the start of the school year. This is normally done during 6th grade and can be obtained at your PCP’s office with a nurse visit if it hasn’t already been done. A record of these immunizations must be in the health office prior to the start of school in August.
- A physical exam is also required within one year prior to entry into that grade through completion of that school year. If your child has had a physical exam done on or after July 1st of the year they entered 6th grade, this exam will satisfy the requirement.
*If your child plans on playing sports, a current physical must be on file in the Mohawk School Nurse’s office. Sports physicals are only good for 13 months. If a physical is more than 13 months old, that child will not be allowed to practice or compete in any sport per MIAA rules*
Library News from Ms. Wilson
Battle of the Books continues!
So far, two of our award-winning books have made it to Round 2 of Battle of the Books. The first was Watercress, by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chin. The second book to move to round 2 was Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, which won by a landslide. This week’s contenders are: We are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade, and Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christan Robinson. It has been so fun to read these great books with kids and learn why they prefer one book over another. I encourage you to ask your child what they voted for and why!
Read Across America
Some students are taking part in the Library’s Read Across America Challenge, which is to read 8 books by 8 different authors from 8 different states by the end of March. This would be a great activity to do at home with your child.
Spring Cleaning Donations
Are you doing any spring cleaning that involves making space on your bookshelves? I am looking to fill in some gaps with some series books in the library. If you have any of the following books that are ready for a new home, please send me an email at rwilson@mtrsd.org or you can send them in with your child.
Looking for: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, Babysitters Club (graphic novels), Ivy and Bean, Zoey and Sassafras, Ranger in Time, Last Kids on Earth, I Survived!, Owl Diaries, and any books from the Mercy Watson series. Also open to any graphic novels that are ready to be passed on. Thank you!
Preschool News from Ms. Freeman
We are learning about our 5 senses and being healthy. Our dramatic play center has been transformed into a doctor’s office. Preschoolers are scheduling appointments, giving baby dolls check-ups, and in some situations, performing surgery. We are also having fun using our senses for some games. We played a listening game, trying to guess farm sounds or sounds we may hear at home. We also used our sense of touch to play a texture matching game!
Spirit Week has also been a highlight this week. Preschoolers love to dress-up and it’s fun that we can do it together as a class and school!
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie
We’ve been having fun with parachute games in the gym with Ms. Vicky and our 3rd-grade buddies. We form a huge circle around the outside of the parachute and grab hold of one color. Sometimes we lift the parachute high together and watch it float back down, sometimes we take turns running beneath its rainbow colors to the other side before it comes down. We placed some bouncy balls on top and shook the parachute as a team and watched the balls bounce up and down like popcorn!
Spring is in the air and rainbows and shamrocks are popping up everywhere! We made beautiful rainbows with our buddies, scrunching up tissue paper and gluing it on a rainbow drawing. We layered each color just right to make the lovely rainbows. They are hanging in the school hallway for all to enjoy.
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah
In science this week, we focused on gases. We learned that gases change their shape to fit their container and spread out to fill the whole container—even escaping if there is no lid! To see this, we put a balloon over a bottle of seltzer water and watched it expand. We also put dry paper towels in the base of inverted cups, filled the cups with air by moving them down, and placed them into a bowl of water—and were amazed to see that the cups were so full of air, the water couldn’t get in and the paper towels stayed dry. This is a fun experiment to repeat in the bath! These experiments helped us to see how the air is there taking up space, even though it is invisible.
First Grade News from Mrs. Wyckoff
This week in science we are focusing on the phases of the moon. As a class we were looking to answer the question: Why does the moon look different each night? Children learned the following vocabulary words: waxing, waning and crescent. As a whole class we worked together to complete the phases of the moon matching game. After recording the results on their recording sheet, first graders were able to identify the phases that were the same just in the reverse, such as a waxing crescent and a waning crescent. Have fun looking up at the night sky to see if you and your child can identify what phase of the moon we are in tonight! (hint: there will be a full moon on Friday 3/18!)
Second Grade News from Ms. Robertson
As part of our Number Corner activities this month, we have been exploring “mystery shapes”. Each day we are given a clue, such as f=6, e=12, and v=8 (f-faces, e-edges, v=vertices), to figure out what three-dimensional solid is being represented. Another Number Corner focus for March is money, where we are collecting “Two Quarters a Day” and keeping a running tally of the total amount of money we collect. We have also continued to make “deposits” to our Base 10 Bank that was described in last month’s Number Corner activities and soon we’ll begin to make “withdrawals” from it.
Second Grade News (continued)
As part of our poetry unit, we have read aloud the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost several times. Prior to reading the poem the first time, we brainstormed describing words for snow, such as wet, fluffy, and crunchy. Then as we heard the poem read aloud, we imagined the different parts in our minds, choosing one of our imagined scenes to illustrate. We also read aloud an illustrated copy of the poem, comparing the scenes we imagined in our minds with those of illustrator Susan Jeffers. This week our writing also focused on poetry, where we wrote a class “I Am” poem about a frog. We first brainstormed words to describe a frog and then thought about actions they do. Using our ideas, we wrote the first poem below. We then talked about how we can make our poem stronger by revising it, by making changes to our word choice or by adding in new details. Thus, our original poem, after our revisions, became the second poem listed below. Our next step will be to choose a favorite wild animal and to write and revise our own “I Am” poems about it.
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole
Fourth Grade News from Ms. Laogy
We are embarking on a fun and exciting writing project. After finishing Glory Be students noticed that there was an Author’s Note at the end of the book. We read the note together and generated a list of questions that we wanted to ask the author, Augusta Scattergood. We are hoping to finish our letters Friday and look forward to mailing them out. We reached out to Ms. Scattergood on her website and got a mailing address for her. We were interested to learn that she lives in Washington DC. We hope to hear back from her soon.
Sixth Grade News from Ms. Lilly
Last week we had an amazing visit with local author and educator, Rachel Simmons. Rachel came to our class and spoke with us about navigating friendships, new experiences, and middle school. The class had great discussions and were highly engaged with Rachel and the different activities she brought to our classroom. We also learned a new math game called “Spoons”. Some of you may be familiar with this game which can be played with traditional playing cards, but we‘ve been playing with fractions, percents, and decimals. The focus of the game is to get three cards that are all equal to each other, once you get three of a kind you grab a spoon. One of the other students quickly grabs a spoon and the last person without a spoon gets a letter. The game continues until someone gets all the letters in the word, math. Now that the class has gotten a hang of the game and is becoming quicker looking for matches the game is fun and fast paced. Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter with pictures of our cell projects!
News from Ms. Prew
Same & Different is a super fun math routine that our fantastic Sanderson students engage in regularly. Check out some examples below. Looking at robot pictures A and B: What do you notice? What is the same? What is different? Now look at robot pictures C and D: Which robot goes better with A and B, and why? Ready for a challenge? Now check out Same & Different: Fraction Division. What is the same? What is different? I hope you enjoyed Same & Different! :) aprew@mtrsd.org
Mindful Movement News from Ms. Sue
We have been talking all about LUCK. What does it mean to feel LUCKY? Have you ever been in a situation where you felt LUCKY with the outcome? How LUCKY am I to be me! Maybe we had a situation where we just missed getting injured! Phew, that was lucky! Maybe we believe we are lucky to live where we do…we have homes, food to eat and clean water to drink. We used shamrocks to write down some of these situations that really got us thinking about how lucky we are. Being OPTIMISTIC, even if things take a turn for the worse, you can spot the good in a situation. Happy SPRING everyone!!!
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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