
Weekly Newsletter
March 7, 2024
News from Principal Emma Liebowitz
News for Sixth Grade Parents and All Families:
March - Sixth Grade Classroom Visits: Guidance counselor and principal, accompanied by former students, will visit each 6th grade classroom and provide information about life and opportunities at MTRS:
3/19 BSE
3/20 Hawlemont
3/21 Rowe
3/22 Sanderson
3/22 Colrain
March 27th - District Celebration of Learning at MTRS 4-6pm: This will be a great opportunity to see the school and to meet current students and staff and to find out more about the clubs and activities available to MTRS students
April 10th - Welcome to Grade 7: 5:30-7:30pm: Information and Ice cream for sixth grade families
June 3rd - Step Up Day: Grade six students from the district, as well as Rowe Elementary, will come to MTRS to meet teachers and experience a morning at MTRS
Additional opportunities for community events at MTRS (more information on the MTRS website):
- April 11th - Spring MTRS Music Concert
- May 3 and 4th - MTRS Spring Musical
- May 11th - Spring Fling
Upcoming Events
Friday, March 8 - Fourth Grade FIeld Trip to Susan B. Anthony Museum
Wednesday, March 13: 1:50 Dismissal
Monday March 18 - 22: Sanderson Book Fair
Wednesday, March 20: All School Meeting at 2:15
Thursday, March 21: 12:30 Dismissal for Conferences
Friday, March 22: 12:30 Dismissal for Conferences
Friday, March 22: Pizza and Movie Night
Tuesday, March 22: Author Visit - Prudence Marsh
Wednesday, March 27: 1:50 Dismissal
Friday, March 29: Ed Pop the Magician at 2:00
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
Preschool and Kindergarten Registration
Letters will be sent out in the beginning of March.
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
Immunization against serious diseases is a public health strategy that has worked to eliminate/eradicate many serious diseases over time. We are incredibly lucky to have access to life saving vaccines here in this country. As you may have seen in the news, there has been an increase in cases of measles across the country, due to both international travel and low vaccination rates in the U.S. Measles is believed to be one of the most contagious diseases on the planet and can cause serious health problems. Herd immunity is only reached if at least 95% of the population is vaccinated and unfortunately lots of mis-information about immunizations is resulting in less childhood vaccinations across the country.
It is important to be aware of this trend when returning back to the states after travel, as well as if your child is not vaccinated. In the event that there are any vaccine preventable illnesses that may come up in the future, it is important to be aware that any student not vaccinated will need to follow public health guidance and be excluded from school for a period of time (by public health guidelines) to protect the child’s health as well as the community against potential spread of disease. Currently cases of measles are not elevated in MA, thankfully.
If you have any questions about vaccines please don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or your child’s healthcare provider for guidance and support, knowledge is power!
See the articles below for more information about measles and the spread of measles in the U.S. Thank you!
Preschool news from Ms. Freeman and Ms. Becky
Our preschoolers love animals and are always talking about their pets. This week we are learning about veterinarians and how to care for animals. We transformed our dramatic play area into a vet’s office. Preschoolers love this learning center. They have been making appointments for pet check ups and visiting the vet’s office if their pet is hurt or sick.
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie and Ms. Kylee
With a hint of spring in the air, we were able to get back down to our outdoor classroom. The children were so excited to explore the places they love to play. The fairy houses needed some sprucing up after the winter season. Children found new natural materials to use to make the necessary repairs and additions. There was great cooperation and sharing of ideas to get the job done. The children were also happy to take turns on the rope swing and the regular swing. The forest was buzzing with excitement and curiosity. The mud kitchen was fully equipped and waiting for new recipes to be tried out. Some muddy areas close by provided just the right ingredients. We are so happy to be back in our favorite place to play and learn!
Inside the children are continuing to practice writing their names. Our Building Our Names bulletin board has been changed over to clouds with rainbow colored hearts, one for each letter of the child’s name. Preschoolers love to compare who has all the colors of the rainbow and who has only some of the colors. There are even a few children with 2 shades of some colors because they have long names. We are having so much fun writing letters and recognizing letters!
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah, Ms. Veronica and Ms. Beckwith
In our literacy program, we launched our next unit of study, which will focus on writing our own narrative stories that feature weather as a key element in the plot. To prepare for this, we read the classic book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This week, we chose our characters for our narrative weather stories. Then we read aloud some other books that feature weather as a big influence on what the characters do in the story—One Hot Summer Day and The Rain Came Down. We studied what the characters wore, ate, and did as a result of the weather to get ideas for our own books.
First Grade News from Ms. Wyckoff and Ms. April
In science as well as in our EL curriculum, we are continuing to learn about the sun, moon and stars and talking about patterns we observe in the sky. One pattern that we notice is the way the moon appears to change shape each night. First graders had fun completing phases of the moon chart- they learned that a new moon is completely hidden from our view, a crescent moon looks like a crescent roll with just a sliver visible, and the first/last quarter moon shows us half of the moon. A gibbous moon comes just before or after a full moon. First graders also learned the vocabulary words waxing and waning. Waxing can be thought of as something growing, similar to if you’ve ever dipped your own candle. Each time you dip the candle it gets thicker/larger! Waning means to shrink or get smaller. To wrap up our learning each child was given a delicious oreo to recreate one of the phases of the moon. After showing off their learning they got to enjoy their moon oreo!
Second Grade News from Ms. Lilly, Ms. Laura and Ms. Taylor
In our ELA unit we are starting the planning process of our narrative writing project. We have begun thinking about our characters, settings, actions, and feelings. The students will be writing a story about being a paleontologist. In order to get some great ideas for this project we created a dig site at school! The students have been excavating fossils and rocks each day. They’ve realized that the fossils come together to make a large dinosaur. We have used different tools to remove the fossils such as picks, hammers, and brushes. In math we have begun our measuring unit and the students have been using various items to estimate and measure different items around our classroom. We will begin using rulers and yardsticks to measure too. In science we are growing various seeds in different locations to observe the effects of sunlight and soil on the seeds. We were very surprised by the seeds that we placed in a closet to grow without sunlight. Ask your child about what happened to the seeds in the closet and the seeds in the window.
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole and Mr. Luke
It has been an exciting week in third grade as we all cheer for our mushers as they make their way down the Iditarod trail. This real-world learning is meaningful for the students as they practice reading text and charts to learn about their musher’s standings. The combination of athleticism, sportsmanship, knowledge, grit, and love for the dogs that it takes to successfully run in the Iditarod is awe-inspiring. Feel free to follow along at home on the free website, Iditarod.com.
With the warm weather, melting snow, and seed orders rolling in, we can’t help but think about spring a bit early. This week we made rainbows with our preschool buddies by tearing, crinkling, and gluing tissue paper. As always, the third graders did an amazing job helping their buddies create a lovable finished product. These are out for all to see in the lobby’s display cabinets.
Fifth Grade News from Ms. Johnson and Ms. Shero
Fifth grade has wrapped up their studies of Earth’s place in the universe. Students culminated the unit by creating amazing projects to demonstrate something they learned from the unit. There were models of the phases of the moon, a sundial, light boxes with constellations and demonstrations about rotation and revolution. Students had many facts and a wealth of information to share with the class as they shared their projects.
News from Ms. Prew
The Math Learning Center has a website filled with resources designed specifically for supporting families with our math curriculum. Please check it out by clicking this link! Enjoy! As always, please email me with any questions or comments - I love to hear from you! :) aprew@mtrsd.org
SEPAC News
Community News and Events
Check out what is happening in our area!
About Us
Email: eliebowitz@mtrsd.org
Website: https://sanderson.mohawktrailschools.org/
Location: 808 Cape Street, Ashfield, MA, USA
Phone: (413) 628-4404
Facebook: facebook.com/SandersonAcademy