The Bobcat Bulletin

This is an amazing, free opportunity not to miss for students and families - and something fun to do on Monday!

Clemmons Family Farm joyfully presents, Passports Through Time: Exploring Our Civil Rights of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

This year's family-friendly program highlights the tumultuous, brave, and inspiring periods of civil rights history, beginning with the Reconstruction Era of the 1800s up to present and future times.

Visit five time capsules to learn about some of the important civil rights milestones and artists of different eras, get your special MLK Day passport stamped, co-create art, and participate in virtual community murals!

Monday, January 15, 2024
Echo, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain

Time Capsules from 10 am - 1:30 pm

Clemmons Family Farm MLK Celebration, January 15, 2024

While Vermont weather is unpredictable, it’s important students come to school with appropriate clothing for cold weather. This includes snow pants, jacket, boots, waterproof gloves and a hat. We go outside every day - several times a day. We have morning recess at arrival, mid-day recess, and often go outside for Physical Education. We are outside when the “feels-like” temperature is above zero.

Over the next couple of weeks, we are practicing the Run and Hide safety protocol at FMS. Students will learn about it in their classroom, and practice our school procedure in a variety of spaces around the school throughout the month. For more information about safety practices in EWSD, please visit the District Safety Website.

At FMS, students should be “device-free” during school hours. Devices should be kept zipped into student backpacks if they are brought to school. Smartwatches that have messaging or phone call capabilities should also be kept at home or in backpacks. Personal devices are a distraction to learning. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Our FMS PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) Team has planned two special family nights in the upcoming months. More details will follow, but please mark your calendars for the following dates:

Thursday, March 14, 2024, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

FMS Family Night - BINGO and Healthy Snacks!

Thursday, May 16, 2024, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

FMS Family Night - Technology Tools and Tips!

Consistent and clear expectations allow students and staff to know what it should look like and sound like in all of our school’s settings. Caregivers received a Path to Success from your student prior to our December break which included our expectations for all settings. Please support our students and review school expectations at home. It’s especially helpful before and after each school break!

Picture books for young readers are building blocks that promote literacy, vocabulary skills, sentence structure and story analysis. FMS students have been reading picture books in the library this month and discussing and analyzing the story, pictures and words. In addition to reading, we are also studying two very important picture book awards, The Caldecott Medal and The Red Clover Book Award.

The Caldecott Medal will be awarded by the American Library Association to an illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book at the end of this month. Several FMS classes are reading the nominees for the Caldecott Medal and we are holden our own Mock Caldecott contest by evaluating and scoring each book based on the following criteria:

• Do the illustrations show excellence in artistic technique?

• Does the style of the illustrations match the mood, theme of the story?

• Are the illustrations critical to the story?

• Do the illustrations appeal to children?

Vermont’s Red Clover Book Award is a student choice award, designed for children in kindergarten through fourth grade. Each year thousands of Vermont school children read the 10 nominated picture books and vote for their favorite in the spring. Several FMS classes have also started reading the nominees and students are tracking their reading in journals where they rate and take descriptive notes about each of the books.

Click on the links below for more information about these important picture book awards.

The Caldecott Medal
Red Clover Book Award

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Biggs and Mrs. Pike

Please see below for our current job openings. FMS community members make great staff members! Feel free to share the links below.

FMS Job Openings

Mainstream Instructional Assistant

Long-Term Substitute: Speech and Language Pathologist

Monday, January 15: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, No School for Students

Friday, January 26: Progress Reports Viewable to Families

Email: sjablonski@ewsd.org
Website www.ewsd.org/fms
Location: 33 Founders Road, Essex Junction, VT, USA
Phone: 802-879-6326
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Founders-Memorial-School-1509308329359547