Newsletter 06-11-10
Calendar
Tuesday, June 15 Sixth Grade Graduation 6:30 pm
Wednesday, June 16 Last day of school for students, dismissal at 11:50am All students will be going home on one bus.
The Principal’s Desk
Rosemary FitzSimons
We had a special All School meeting and a special visitor at school on Tuesday – Adam Perkins is home on leave from Iraq. He wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed to the boxes sent to him on his army base in Iraq. He presented the student council with a US flag that was flown on his base in Iraq.
Don’t forget to sign your child up for the Jumpstart to Learning if you haven’t already done so. A sheet with corrections on the costs went home to all students on Wednesday. This is a great extra learning opportunity for students who need some additional support and those who wish to excel. There are also openings for the artist in residence taking place the week of the 21st. Remember there are scholarships available. We don’t want any child left out due to costs. Contact me if you want more information.
We had our final All School Meeting of the year yesterday. We used it to celebrate student successes of ROARS this year. If you have walked through the halls the last few weeks, you may have noticed all of the stars outside the library. Each section of stars represents a classroom. These stars are symbols of the successes students have had by “going above and beyond” to be good examples of ROARS. Over the last few weeks the goal was for each student to receive a star for each one of the attributes of ROARS – r – responsible, o – own-it, a – achieve, r- respect and s – safety. Each classroom had a different way of acknowledging this. In all classrooms, conversations took place between the child and teacher in order to get a star when the student shared their ROARS behavior. In grades one through six students also shared their ROARS through writing.
Additionally, the students in Mrs. Bills’ class worked in groups and developed skits around ROARS behaviors. Mrs. PJ’s class also linked ROARS to poetry. Below are several examples of cinquains that were written by students;
ROARS
Own-it safety
Using kind words
I really love ROARS
ROARSBORO
By Arin
Achieve
Work done
Above and beyond
Always should do it!
AWESOME
By Ayden
Really nice to people
Owning your own business
Always getting your work done
Really helping people out
Sitting criss-cross
By Curtis
ROARS
Reading quietly
Oh no, I did not mean it
Always doing your homework
Really listening to the teacher
Safely playing
By Cobe
Don’t forget to look for our community news in the July edition of the Bucketville News. HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY SUMMER!
Saying Good-Bye
Saying good-bye is never easy, especially when it is someone who has been an important part of our lives. We’ll soon be saying good-bye to a para, a teacher, colleague and friend - Gwenn Melis. Gwenn has been a valued employee of the Wardsboro Central School for the last 16 years. She has served as a paraprofessional in various rooms during her time here. In the three years I have been here I have witnessed her dedication to her job and her caring towards others. She will be greatly missed.
School districts, like families, are in the position of needing to find ways to conserve. As a result of budget discussions during board meetings last fall and winter, the Board of Directors approved a budget designed to balance school and taxpayer needs. An overview of the budget was presented to voters, discussed and voted on March 2nd at the annual school budget meeting. Along with other cuts, this budget included a reduction of one paraprofessional. As principal, I work closely with the board to develop the school budget. As a former elementary teacher, I know how valuable a “good” para is. In this school we have been blessed to have four great paras so the decision of which para to cut was not easy. It involved discussions with many people, including the paras, to consider all options. In the end, Gwenn, was the para to be let go. This is by no means a reflection on her work here but a result of the simple fact there is only money in the budget for three paras next year .
Abe Lincoln once said, “Whatever you are, be a good one” and Gwenn has been that. On behalf of all those students and teachers she has served over the last sixteen years, WE THANK HER!
Rosemary FitzSimons
Summer Book Making Class
Students and parents! There is still time to sign up for the June 21 – 25 summer bookmaking class at Wardsboro Elementary. Local artist Betsy Stacey will be guiding students from start to finish through the steps of bookmaking. From writing to photography to art, this class is a fun way to kick off the summer! Sign up forms are available from the office at Wardsboro Elementary School. Sign up now before the class fills!
-Charlie Cummings
Dear Pre K and Kindergarten Families,
Thank you to all of the families who contributed items to our pasta salad. It was delicious. Also, it was nice to see so many families at our picnic on Friday, thank you all for joining us.
This was our last week of literacy centers in the classroom, we played fish BINGO, wrote about our trip to the beach and used Geoboards at the fine motor center. We also reviewed all of our Letterland characters and their sounds.
The Pre K class participated in their first Four Winds class on Wednesday morning. They saw a puppet show, went outside to listen for bird calls and played a bird song game. The Four Winds program is a wonderful enrichment program for our school, and is in need of volunteers for next school year. Thank you to Jennifer Finaldi and Jill Dean for a great class.
This is the final newsletter of the year. End of year report cards will go home on the last day of school, June 16th.
A letter will go out in August to incoming kindergarten students about next school year. Be on the lookout for it.
It has been a wonderful school year. I have truly enjoyed your children and will sincerely miss them all. I hope you all enjoy your summer and hope to see you around town. It is sure to be a busy summer for me, as my family will be building a house in hopes to be in early this fall.
First and Second Grade
Well, the first and second graders had a wonderful time on our field trip to the beach. I was very excited to share where I grew up with my students. We all enjoyed climbing on the rocks, looking through tide pools, and exploring the sandbars, and of course SWIMMING!
Now that we are back at school I am continuing my end of year literacy and math assessments. I will include this information in student’s report cards.
During word work first graders worked on sorting and identifying words that end the same. Also, first graders began looking for words that go together because of what they mean. For example, socks and shirt go together because they are something you wear. Second graders continued to explore suffixes. This week we worked on adding –er to a base word to make a word that tells what someone does. For example, a person that swims is a swimmer. We explored different clues we use to help us with the different spelling changes when adding –er.
Students have continued to work on their sea creature reports during our writer’s workshop.
For our Math workshop the first and second graders have wrapped up their exploration of money. We will be completing the end of the year assessment covering everything we have done in math this school year.
I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Dear Third and Fourth Graders and Families,
Thank you very much for the great year! I have enjoyed working with this great group of Third and Fourth Graders. I wish the fourth graders luck and a great year next year with Mrs. Shakespeare, and I look forward to working with the third graders again next year!
The class has continued to work hard in all subjects, and they have been very cooperative and helpful while I do individual student assessments.
This summer I hope that everyone does plenty of reading, and other activities to keep their brains working. Just like our muscles our brains need exercise to stay strong. I will try to put together a sheet of ideas of ways to exercise their brains this summer and send it home next week.
I would also like to thank Mrs. Melis for all of her help and hard work in my classroom and the school! She will be greatly missed next year and I would like to wish her luck in whatever she decides to do!
Please have a happy, safe and fun summer break so that you are all ready to return to school in the fall and work very hard!
Fifth and Sixth Grade
This last full week of school has been a productive one! Students in six different groups completed news presentations in front of their classmates. News presenters were dressed professionally and did a great job of conveying the seriousness of delivering the news. They also did a great job of creating commercial breaks for each news station’s presentation! All of the presentations were taped in front of a live audience. It is expected that students will be able to view the news presentations next week.
Our class was quite moved when Kristen’s and Chris’s brother Adam visited the school to present the American flag to the school. Students appreciated the opportunity to ask him about the important work he does.
Sixth Grade Parent Alert! If you are planning on having your child attend another school other than Leland and Gray for the seventh grade, please notify Mrs. Smith as soon as possible! She needs to make sure that each student’s record gets sent to the correct place!
Reminder: Graduation ceremony starts at 6:30 on June 15th in the multi-purpose room. Sixth graders should arrive at 6:15.