Happy New Year

January 17th, 2025

Dear Families and Community,

I hope your holiday season was filled with joy, relaxation, and time with loved ones. I had a wonderful holiday spent with family near and far, and we were especially excited to welcome my daughter back home—she is officially done with her first semester of college!

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been back to school for two weeks since our return on January 6th. I’ve loved seeing the energy and enthusiasm that has filled our classrooms as we embark on a new year. The fresh start that the new year brings offers countless opportunities for our students to continue growing, learning, and soaring to new heights.

Looking ahead, we will soon be celebrating some exciting events at Antrim Elementary, including the 100th Day of School, Kindness Week, and Read Across America. These special occasions are wonderful opportunities to inspire creativity, foster compassion, and celebrate the joy of reading and learning together.

If you're looking for some new school spirit gear, don't forget to check out our online school swag store, featuring designs from Blueberry Hill Designs in Bennington! The store will be open until January 26th, so be sure to get your orders in before then. You can shop here: AES Winter 2025 Swag Store.

Thank you for all of your feedback about the STEM Night event! This event was not only well attended but also sparked interest in many more events like it. Families have shared their desire for additional activities such as a parent series, spaghetti dinners, art and music creation nights, academic exhibitions, and much more. Your feedback is critical to helping us offer events with activities that are meaningful to your family.

It’s benchmark assessment time! Students have been working diligently on their assessments this past week and will continue next week. We are already seeing AMAZING growth in the scores! Please take a moment to talk with your child about the growth they are making in class. Reports will be sent home after the benchmarking window closes, so please look for those reports around the first or second week of February.

Additionally, the dyslexia screener is being administered this month to all K-3 students, as mandated by state policy. If any students are flagged in this round of screening, a letter will be sent home indicating that one or more areas have been identified as a risk for reading challenges in foundational reading skills. If this applies to your child, their teacher or I will follow up with an intervention plan that either is already in place or will be implemented if needed.

As we settle into the rhythm of the semester, I want to take a moment to thank you for your continued partnership in making Antrim Elementary School a place "where students learn to soar."

Together, we’re building a fantastic year ahead, full of learning and achievement.

Here’s to continuing our journey of growth and success!

Warmest regards,

Beth Gibeny

Principal - Anterim Elementary School

"Where students learn to soar"

Act of Service

Honor the work of Martin Luther King Jr. by spreading kindness and compassion. Some ideas include donating winter accessories to your local homeless shelter, baking cookies for a neighbor, or making cards for loved ones needing a smile.

AES Swag Order: Here is the link to order AES Swag. Note the store closes on Jan 26th. https://aes-winter-25.itemorder.com/shop/sale/

Upcoming Events: (see AES Google Calendar for more)

1/20 – No School

1/31 - Community Meeting 8:50AM - First grade present, all are welcome

- Principal Coffee Hour 9:15 - 10:15

2/11- PTO Meet

4/12- Skate Night 6PM-9PM

2/14 - Community Meeting 8:50AM - Fourth grade present, all are welcome

- Principal Coffee Hour 9:15 - 10:15

2/17 - 2/21 - Kindness Week

Did you know? PTO-sponsored fundraisers like the Mums and Poinsettias fundraiser made it possible to have snacks at the Eagle Day activities and Turkey Trot this year. The PTO also funded the Crazy 8s after-school math club last year and is currently funding a new online library extension for all students and staff called SORA. These are just a few of the wonderful ways the PTO helps enrich our students’ experiences, and we couldn’t do it without your involvement and support!

Calling all families to join PTO! Without your support, we will not be able to continue offering amazing activities and events for our students and families. Please consider attending a PTO meeting and/or reaching out to our PTO president, Eren Pills-Martin, at thepilsmartins@gmail.com to learn more about how you can help. Our next meeting will be on February 11th at 3:45 PM—we would love to have you join us!

On Thursday, January 16th, Antrim Elementary School hosted the monthly community supper at the First Presbyterian Church. On a chilly evening, we provided 3 types of hot soup, salad, breadsticks and dessert to approximately 75 people. We were fortunate that the TACO Club of Avenue A was able to help us prepare and serve. Many thanks to all who joined us and helped to make this event a success.

Thank you for all of your feedback about the STEM Night event! This event was not only well attended but also sparked interest in many more events like it. Families have shared their desire for additional activities such as a parent series, spaghetti dinners, art and music creation nights, academic exhibitions, and much more. Your feedback is critical to helping us offer events with activities that are meaningful to your family.

Our Community Engagement Community is currently in the process of planning a Literacy Night for March, and we’re excited to announce that the Monadnock Roller Derby Skate Night on April 12th from 6 PM - 9 PM will be sponsoring AES. Proceeds from concessions that night will be donated to AES, so mark your calendars for a fun evening out!

The Community Engagement Community is also looking for a family member and a community member to join the community. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Beth Gibney at bgibney@conval.edu or call the main office.

If you're looking for some new school spirit gear, don't forget to check out our online school swag store, featuring designs from Blueberry Hill Designs in Bennington! The store will be open until January 26th, so be sure to get your orders in before then. You can shop here: AES Winter 2025 Swag Store.

This Week: This week Fourth Grade Group B began creating digital citizenship posters. They could choose to make a poster, comic strip or code a digital poster to teach others how to be a good digital citizen. First grade began a research unit on what animals do in the winter.

Next Week: After break Third Grade and Mrs. Phaneuf’s Kindergarten will have library.

All the First Friends in Ms. Starr’s and Mrs. D’s classes had fun learning about White-tailed Deer with our Harris Center naturalist, Ms. Kara! We got to see and touch deer hooves, antlers, and pelts. We also practiced moving like a deer and learned that deer like to shelter under evergreen trees in the winter.

Ms. Lawler and Mrs. Phaneuf’s Kindergarten classes learned about Martin Luther King Jr. by watching a Sesame Street episode. We learned that he dedicated his life to making sure all people were treated with kindness and fairness. Each Kindergarten student drew one way they show kindness and fairness on a leaf and we created a beautiful Peace Tree.

This week, Ms. Revaz and Ms. Del Rossi's classes came together for an exciting research session in the library, hosted by our wonderful librarian, Ms. Brett! The focus of this collaborative adventure? Penguins!

Students partnered up and were assigned different species of penguins to research. Using books, articles, and other resources provided by Ms. Brett, students discovered fascinating facts about these incredible creatures' habitats, diets, and behaviors.

It was wonderful to see the students working together, sharing ideas, and diving deep into the world of penguins.

We can’t wait to see how these researchers use their newfound knowledge to share their findings! Thank you, Ms. Brett, for hosting such a fun and engaging activity! We look forward to continuing next week.

This week 4th graders wrapped up a math unit on area and perimeter. Students put their Google slides skills to the test and started creating their very own city using their understanding of these challenging math concepts. Ask your fourth graders about their city!!

To end the week, our class came together and decorated graham cracker gingerbread houses. Students were very creative with their decorations and enjoyed sharing their unique designs with classmates. Have a wonderful winter break! Don’t forget to read those new books!

This week in Muzart fourth graders finished up their self portraits and began planning out their canvas project! Fourth graders also started learning ukulele this week. If your fourth grader has Muzart this week they know how to play the chords C and Am!

~Mrs. Harvey

Classroom Lessons (K-4):

Kindergarten: In this week’s lesson, your child learned two ways to help themselves feel calm when they encounter strong feelings: asking for help and slow breathing. Ask your child to tell you some ways they’ve learned to feel calm when they get upset. Have them teach you how to use slow breathing to feel calm.

Mrs. Sullivan’s Class: We began our bullying prevention curriculum this week with a lesson about how to recognize bullying. Students learned the definition of bullying, the types of bullying, and reviewed a variety of scenarios to determine if they were examples of bullying.

Ms. Voorhees’s Class: In this week’s lesson, your child showed that they can use body language and context clues to figure out how someone is feeling. They also showed that they know ways to help themselves feel calm when they encounter strong feelings. Ask your child to tell you some ways they’ve learned to feel calm when they get upset. Have them teach you how to use slow counting to feel calm.

2nd Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child explained why their classmates may have a different feeling from theirs in the same situation. Ask your child to tell you what they learned about their classmates’ feelings and their own feelings.

3rd Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child practiced identifying different intensities of the same feeling by giving personal examples. Ask your child if they can give examples of times they felt strong emotions like furious or excited.

4th Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child learned what it means to rethink a situation and how it can help them calm strong emotions. Tell your child about a time when rethinking a situation, or thinking about it in a different way, helped you feel better. Encourage your child to talk about times in their lives when rethinking could have helped them.

Regulation Strategy of the Week:

This week I began sharing a "Strategy of the Week." By the end of the school year, students will have 21 strategies to help with regulation - some are breathing, some are mindfulness, and others involve physical activity. I'm hoping this will give our students some new strategies to try when they're beginning to feel dysregulated. Each teacher will receive a poster with the strategy of the week to share with their class. Each student (K-4) will receive a small card with the strategy of the week along with a small plastic case to store their cards. Students will keep their cases in their classroom. I’ll include the strategy of the week in the newsletter as well. If you’d like some strategy cards for home, please let me know!

This week’s strategy is “How to Calm Your Angry Spot.”

Include this flyer please 🙂

Email: bgibney@conval.edu
Website: https://aes.conval.edu/

Location: 10 School Street, Antrim, NH, USA
Phone: (603)588-6371