MHS/WES Newsletter

We have begun to experience a large increase in the number of students attending breakfast. This has led to time challenges in ensuring the students have an appropriate amount of time to arrive at school, get through the line and eat their breakfast prior to arriving to class at 8:40. We are concerned that some parents are not aware that their child is eating breakfast at school.

Please confirm with your child's teacher whether they should or should not attend breakfast. Food is a very personal matter and we simply wish to ensure that parents are aware that their child is going to breakfast and has permission to do so. Further, should any family find themselves in need of additional resources to manage any unforeseen needs please reach out to the school counselors so we may assist you in identifying potential resources to help you manage those challenges.

October 18, Monday~Kindergarten picture day and absente/retake day for MHS & WES

October 21, Thursday~HALF DAY FOR ALL SCHOOLS

October 21, Thursday~Elementary Conferences

November 12, Friday~PTO Boosterthon Fun Run

With your support, the transition from home to school has been positive and almost seamless for your children. We have worked hard learning and practicing classroom routines and expectations and the children have settled in nicely. Thank you for joining us for Open House. The students were so excited to lead their families around their school and classroom and beamed with pride as they pointed out their hard work. Walk to School Day was a great success and enjoyed by students, staff, families and community members who came out to enjoy the walk and beautiful weather! Thank you for your continued support and classroom donations. We look forward to seeing you at conferences.

We are so happy to welcome students back to full-time in-person learning! It has been a wonderful start to the year, and we have been spending some extra time setting up classroom expectations and creating a classroom community. Academically, we are beginning our BRIDGES math unit focusing on multiplication strategies, factors and multiples. It is so important for students to memorize their fast facts! We are practicing our reading comprehension strategies and writing a concrete paragraph with specific details. In science, we have started a plant and animal structures unit.

For the safety of all students, please wait until you are by the flagpole before letting your child out of the car. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

MCAS results were sent home through your child's backpack on Wednesday, October 13.

Students at MHS and WES are continuing to learn through choice in the Art Studios. I encourage the creative growth of our young artists through Teaching for Artistic Behavior. (TAB) The focus of this teaching style is to help develop each student as an artist with independent, confident ideas. Student thinking and artwork will showcase these ideas. In each newsletter where there is an art studio article, I will explain a little more about the TAB philosophy. The first 6 weeks of school are spent developing a safe and nurturing environment where students feel empowered to make choices, make mistakes and try again. Kindergarten has choices in the form of "table boxes" (paper, crayons, paint sticks, stencils, rulers) The First Graders are being introduced to the centers in the room, one at a time: Drawing Center, Art Games Center, Building Design (blocks, buildings), Mixed Media and the Paint Center. Grade 2 and 3 students are enjoying "Around the Room" activities before they explore going to the centers. "Around the Room" activities are when the 6 art studio tables are set up with different media to explore. Students spend 7 minutes at each table and then move "around the room" to explore all the other tables. Grade 4 has more experience and most sections of fourth grade already have 3-4 centers open: Drawing Studio, Art Games, Mixed Media, and Building Design. We are working on idea generation and "Where do Artists get Ideas?". Grade 5 has started out with collaborative art projects and community-building art games.

ARTSONIA update:

I have not been actively uploading student artwork to Artsonia since the beginning of Covid. I am slowly getting back into it. For those of you not familiar with Artsonia, it is an online art gallery for students to display their artwork. Parents also have the option to purchase products with their child's artwork on them. (mugs, shirts, phone cases, jewelry, etc...) A percentage of those sales goes right back into the art program for supplies and Spring art show materials. I believe grades 3,4, and 5 already have accounts set up and I will be sending permission forms out to parents of children in grades K,1 and 2 soon. Any questions, please contact me at abanning@awrsd.org. Thanks!

Stay creative!

Ms. Banning

There will be a slight change to the school lunch menus for next week:

Monday at WES only at this point:

Choice A: Chicken Parm Sub (not meatball sub)

Tuesday at WES and MHS:

Choice A: Corn Dog (not breadsticks)

Choice B: Galaxy Pizza

The Fun Run is just around the corner!

We are excited to kick off our Fun Run on 11/1 with our big event on 11/12.

Here’s what all students can get excited about:

• Fun, engaging character development lessons

• A high-energy event to give our school a boost of fun

We plan to have our Fun Run outside this year (weather permitting) on 11/12. Each grade will have assigned times when they run laps outside while music is playing and parents and staff cheer them on. It's a fun event you won't want to miss.

We’ll send more details (including a schedule of each grade level), as we get closer to our kick off. Thank you for your support this year.