2025 has kicked off with a bang!

We have jumped into the Winter Kids competition - where we are working to earn the most points towards outdoors science challenges against 15 other schools across the state of Maine. The competition has so far brought increased physical activity, brought out the inner scientist of our students, and brought pride to Washburn! Coming up for Winter Kids we have a few noteable events:

• Winter Kids Family Night at Pettengill Park on Monday Jan. 27th from 4-6 pm
• Sledding, hot chocolate, and an outdoor scavenger hunt!
• Hot chocolate $1.00 which will all go towards the 6th grade class trip
• Breakfast with a Buddy
• This Friday from 8:00 - 8:45 am (RSVP required)

Thank you all for a magnificent start to the year - winter can be hard for many and the more patient, kind, and involved we all are for our students the better. Now think snow for the remaining two weeks of the winter kids games! 🤞

Best,

Meghan Wood

Principal

• No School - Jan. 27th Teacher Workshop Day
• Full Day Wednesday Jan. 29th
• Early Release Wednesday - Feb. 5th 1:00 pm
• Early Release Wednesday - Feb. 12th 1:00 pm
• PTO Meeting - Feb. 13th @ 3:30 pm

Safety is our first priority. This is why we have high expectations for student behaviors. It is why we train to evacuate and we train for intruders. Every staff member has multiple ways to access administration and are capable of making emergency calls as needed.

• All the doors are locked all the time, external and internal

• There are hard wired phones in each room

• Cameras that are observed

• Secure front entrance

• Badged staff

• Practice safety measures

• We do not have unannounced visitors

• Staff have multiple communication devices to contact others for immediate assistance

We are off and running - we came in 3rd this week on the leader board!

The games are officially underway. Both students and teachers are having a blast with daily classroom experiments and putting on their 'meteorologist hat' so to speak by making daily weather observations.

This week in particular Winter Kids taught us all about the Albedo Effect and how the sun reflects light colors - keeping those items colder - where darker colors absorb the light - making dark items hotter when the sun shines on them! Students also learned how to measure snow amounts using a measuring tape.

The cold this week isn't holding us back - we are just getting creative! As week two comes to a close thank you everyone for your contribution in getting involved and fostering a strong and healthy outdoor winter community for our students.

Winter is here! Please make sure your child is prepared for the cold weather days. As a reminder all students do go outside throughout the day. We would like them to stay warm while at school. Please send in a jacket, hats, mittens/gloves and boots when appropriate. An extra pair of socks is always good to pack in bags as well... we know the snow sneaks down those boots. Snow will be here soon and the expectation for all grades is that they have boots and snow pants to play in the snow.