PHT Paws-itively News

Dear Page Hilltop Families:

It was Triple Bonus Family Fun Day at Page Hilltop on Saturday. We hosted a Family Pancake Breakfast with nearly 200 in attendance. Families then had the opportunity to have a FAMILY HOLIDAY PORTRAIT taken. Lastly, the PTO HOLIDAY SHOP was open for business all morning. Page Hilltop was filled with excitement! Huge thanks to the Page Hilltop staff members, the PTO board members, and parent volunteers, all of who volunteered their Saturday morning to host all these events.

We continue to promote opportunities for our PH families to come to school and participate in various LIVE events/activities.

Thanks, as always, for sharing your children with us!

Fred Deppe, Principal

Matt Lutinski, Assistant Principal

We are still looking for school substitutes and/or volunteers. There are a variety of opportunities for you to consider and they are all very rewarding experiences. Please contact Mr. Deppe (fdeppe@asrsd.org) for additional information or fill out this application and drop it off at our main office.

December 12th -Trimester 1 Report Cards

December 13th -1/2 Day, Evening Parent Teacher Conferences

December 14th - Winter Concert (9:30 am)

December 14th -1/2 Day, Afternoon Parent Teacher Conferences

December 14th - Winter Concert (6:00 pm)

December 23rd - 1/2 Day

December 26th - 30th - Vacation

DECEMBER LUNCH MENU -- CLICK HERE

BREAKFAST MENU -- CLICK HERE

Mrs. Pucillo's Class: Students in Mrs. Pucillo's 5th-grade class participated in a fun photosynthesis-themed play during Science class this week.

Mrs. Cowley's Classroom: Each year our art teacher, Mrs. Cowley conducts a paper chain challenge. The goal is to "build" the longest paper chain in just one class period. This activity develops team-building skills among the students, artistic creativity with pattern-building, math skills as they calculate measurements for the length of their chains, and an opportunity to earn "bragging rights" for the year as the grade level homeroom with the longest chain. All grades 3-5 students participate in the competition.

These paper chains also have a final purpose: some will be used for chorus concert decorations and others will be sent to various veterans' hospitals and nursing homes to bring joy to residents.

Mr. Whittemore's 5th grade won the 2022 Paper Chain Race with an AMAZING 328-foot chain! Measured on the 1-foot floor tiles, their chain went from one end of the art/gym hallway to the other end, folded over, went back to the start, folded again, and came partway down the hall again!

All of the 5th-grade classes made huge chains this year - Mrs. Pucillo's class chain was 278', Mrs. Godin's class chain was 266' and Mr. Pulizzi's class chain was 258'. (All of these 5th-grade chains were longer than last year's winning chain!)

Mrs. Less's Class: Students in Mrs. Less's 2nd-grade class explored the properties of matter by participating in an Oobleck Science Investigation.

Third grade students developing their word-building & writing skills with Mrs. Denaro (Reading Specialist)

Former student Eliana Laham attended a national swim meet in Indianapolis,

Indiana, December 1 - 4, 2022. She swam in 11 qualifying events, freestyle,

backstroke, and butterfly.

Then she went back for the finals in those same events and placed first, second,

and third to earn enough points to be the “high point” winner in the 11 -12 year

old age group.

We are so proud of Eliana’s accomplishments in swimming.

The month of December will be filled with many spirit days for our students and staff to participate in. We will list them all below so that each family has time to review the list, decide which ones they would like to participate in & prepare for each. Students are welcome to join in some or all of these fun days.

• Thursday, December 15th - Wear your favorite holiday attire
• Friday, December 16th - Polar Express Day - wear comfy PAJAMAS
• Monday, December 19th - Wear your Blue and White for the Festival of Lights
• Tuesday, December 20th - Wear your Red, Green, and Black for Kwanza

One of our after-school enrichment programs is an Environmental Club, coordinated by PH parent Beth Suedmeyer. They are having lots of fun while learning ways that they can help to protect our planet.

Our school chorus, under the direction of Mrs. Richter, will be performing two concerts on Wednesday, December 14th. There will be a morning performance (9:30 am) for all of our PH students. There will also be an evening performance (6:00 pm) which is open to all Page Hilltop families, friends & community members. Both performances will be held in the high school auditorium.

If any of our parents are unable to attend the evening performance, due to work commitments and/or childcare responsibilities, they are welcome to attend the morning performance.

The world famous Harlem Wizards will be returning to Ayer on Tuesday, January 31st. This year's team will be lead by King Arthur, who has showcased his talents against the Page Hilltop School team on previous visits.

Tickets will be available for sale later this week or early next week - in time for holiday gifts!

This past week we held our annual HOLIDAY SHOP for all of our students. As always, it was an amazing experience for both children and adults. Thanks to our PTO for hosting this event each year and to all of the fantastic PH parent volunteers, without whom there would be no holiday shop. This year we had a bonus day of shopping on Saturday for families to do some extra shopping. There is no greater joy than seeing the smiles on the faces of our students as they purchased special gifts for their loved ones!

SAVE THE DATE! Next Meeting - Thursday, January 12th @ 7:00 pm.

Please plan to join us for our next PTO meeting on Thursday, January 12th when our special guest speakers will be members of the Ayer Police Department. Chief Brian Gill, Deputy Chief Jennifer Bigelow & School Resource Officer Michael Nicolo will be here to share information & answer questions regarding an important topic to all of us - school & student safety.

PTO Website -- LINK

PTO Facebook Page -- Link

Are you an Amazon shopper?

Did you know just by shopping with smileamazon.com you can help support PH!?

Create a FREE SMILE ACCOUNT and link it to Page Hilltop.

Share with family and friends so they can help support PH too!

BOX TOPS
YES, Page Hilltop can still earn with Box Tops! CLICK HERE to learn more about Box Tops for Education.

You can't sneeze with your eyes open (try it).

1 million seconds = 11 days, 13 hours, 46 minutes and 40 seconds Bonus: how many seconds in a day, week, or month?

If you can figure out the bonus question, let Mrs. Anderson know!