MHS/WES Newsletter

April 18-22~ No SCHOOL ~ April vacation

April 28 ~ MHS Kindergarten Orientation 9:30-10:30 a.m.

May 5 ~ WES Creation Celebration 6:30-8:00 p.m.

May 18 ~ School Improvement Meeting at 4:15 p.m. & PTO Meeting at 6:30 p.m.

May 16-20 Staff Appreciation (See flyer in this newsletter and more info. coming home next week)

May 23-27 ~ Nature's Classroom Week for 5th Grade

Our students are working hard and we are very proud of them. Thank you for making sure they are getting plenty of rest at home. Also, students are doing a great job of remembering to bring their chromebooks to school fully charged. Your positive encouragement and support at home is making a difference!

APRIL SCHEDULE:

April 26: GRADE 5 -ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS

April 27: GRADE 5 -ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS

MAY SCHEDULE

May 4: GRADE 3-MATH
May 5: GRADE 3-MATH

May 9: GRADE 5-MATH

May 10: GRADE 5-MATH

May 11: GRADE 4-MATH

May 12: GRADE 4-MATH

May 17-GRADE 5-SCIENCE

May 18-GRADE 5-SCIENCE

This week we started a new reading unit. Our essential question is:

How do books change lives around the world?

To support the essential question we will be reading all different stories about how books change the lives of people around the world. We will also be visiting the town library in May! On Monday the permission slips went home for the town library.

Over vacation please take your children on reading field trips or scavenger hunts. Look for all the places people are reading. It could be stores, restaurants, the park or even when you are driving. Find all the places people can get books. Look for places that people buy, borrow, and even exchange books. Don’t forget about our own little lending library right by the Meetinghouse Playground!

Have a wonderful week off!

The first grade team

The snow has melted, the birds are chirping, and Spring is in the air. During the first week of April, fourth grade students ventured outside to see how the plants in our study fared through the winter as we continue to maintain data throughout the school year.

Prior to April break, our literary fourth graders participated in the English Language Arts MCAS assessment. Although it has been a disruptive few years dealing with the pandemic, we know our students have been working hard to grow as readers, writers, listeners, and speakers, and will do their best.

Our mathematicians are currently working on addition and subtraction strategies, place value, measurement, geometry, and developing number sense. In Social Studies, students continue to travel across the United States learning about the five regions. Fourth grade scientists are investigating the features of the Earth’s surface including the rapid and gradual processes (volcanic eruptions, weathering, and erosion) that impact the Earth.

As a council, we've been reviewing our student handbook. Below is an update to our our cell phone and smart watch policy that we will present to the school committee this summer. Currently, our policy states that these devices are NOT allowed in school at all. Please reach out to administration if you have any questions. For more information on our student handbook, click here.

Cell Phones/Smart Watches - Student Handbook

We recognize that parents provide their children with cell phones and smart watches for safety reasons. Therefore, we understand that students may occasionally bring these devices to school.

• Cell phones must remain turned off and stowed away in your child’s bag during the school day, this includes the bus.

• Smart watches must have text and call settings turned off during school hours.

Students are not to call, text, or message their family members or peers during the school day. If students need to reach a family member, they can use one of the phones in the main office. Students may also not photograph or take videos of any staff members or other students in and outside of the building or on the bus. You can help us enforce this policy by not texting your children and calling/answering their calls during the school day.

If a student should bring any electronic device, cell phone, or multi-media device etc. to school, MHS/WES is not responsible for any lost or stolen items.

Cell phones and smartwatches that are being used to make calls, text (family or peers) or play games during the day will be confiscated. Parents will be asked to pick up the device from school.

Being late for school and early dismissals can be hard on students. If possible, please schedule doctor, dentist or other appointments outside of school hours, on school holidays, or during vacation time. Extra-curricular activities should also be scheduled to allow students to complete the school day. We will send a written reminder if the number of late arrivals and early dismissals becomes excessive.

On the day of a dismissal, the parent or guardian must send a note to school stating the time of dismissal and who will pick up the student. No student will be dismissed to anyone but a parent/guardian or authorized adult, who must report to the office to meet the student. PLEASE NOTE: When dismissing your child, please park in the parking lot of your child's school. DO NOT park in front of the school offices. There are no parking spaces and it is dangerous for our students playing outside with their classmates. Also, please do not drive through the DO NOT ENTER or BUSES only signs. This is for the safety of all students and staff members. Thank you for your help.

• Dismissals prior to 11:30 am will be considered an absence.
• Any changes to dismissal plans must be made in writing on or before the day of dismissal. In the event of an emergency, a phone call to the school office will need to be followed up by an e-mail or fax.

In Physical Education last week, we started a Volleyball unit. Volleyball is a very popular lifetime sport that was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, who was a teacher at a YMCA in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Volleyball is a fun sport that can be learned at a young age and is a great social activity. It strengthens the upper body, abdominals and the lower body, it helps to improve cardio, hand eye-coordination, reflexes and balance, as well as teaches teamwork and communication. During our unit, students learned basic skills, such as how to serve, pass and volley over the net. The younger grades did a lead up game of Clean Up the Garbage and the older grades got to play some small sided Volleyball games as well as Four Square Volleyball.

After April vacation, we will be starting a Fitness unit. Students will explore the basic principles of physical fitness, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular development. Students will learn the benefits of a proper warm up and cool down as well as how to monitor their heart rate before and after exercise. Once the students have completed this unit, they will have gained an awareness of how to bring more physical activity into their daily lives and can begin to develop a positive attitude towards healthy, active living.

Mostly everything taught in the Fitness unit requires little to no equipment so the exercises can be done at home. You can also make games out of it so it will be fun! You can do your own “Minute to Win It” challenges that incorporate exercise. Some ideas you could do with your child are high-five pushups, see how many times you can volley a ball in a minute, or count how many times you can hop over a line. And don’t forget to cool down after by doing some stretching!

After a two year absence due to the pandemic, Westminster’s Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN) is planning to host the annual Town Benefit Day on Sunday, August 14 from 11 AM to 5 PM on Academy Hill in Westminster.

The 2022 Town Benefit Day will have most, if not all, of the usual fun things to do for all ages. Previous benefit days have included a 5K road race, K9 demos, games, food trucks, bake sale, strawberry shortcake, fried dough, popcorn, school supply booth, and more! Other great activities for kids, including petting zoo, a youth zone just for kids, and a kid’s flea market, as well as Chinese Auction, Over-the-Top Auction, bounce house, “Horse Races,” and live entertainment all day.

We have asked previous year’s volunteers to help out again, but we still need more volunteers to help plan and staff that day’s events. If you would like to help in the planning and/or staffing, please check westminsternhn@gmail.com for contact info and directors’ names and phone numbers. If you would like to fill out a volunteer form, the direct link is https://forms.gle/mgcmN1jYV9wEfEKj9.

If you are a family member who is raising another family member’s children, you are not alone! Please join our group to connect with others - you can lean on each other for support and share resources that have helped your situation.

We work closely with the Grandparents Raising Children State Commission to bring opportunities and resources to family members.

Our new meeting location is the Westminster Senior Center on the last Friday of the month.

April 29, 2022 @ 10am special virtual guest from Department of Transitional Assistance

May 27, 2022 @ 10am special guest from LUK with info on human services and other parenting resources

Questions? Please feel free to contact Kris Bogosh at kbogosh@awrsd.org