Canterbury Elementary School

K-2 Classes

Our kindergarten, first, and second grade students visited Hackleboro Orchards and Petals in the Pines earlier this fall. When visiting Petals in the Pines, students learned about the life cycle and migration of the Monarch butterflies. In turn, Hackleboro Orchards showed students the different kinds of apples and provided an engagement to compare and contrast the life cycle of an apple to the life cycle of a butterfly. We would like to thank both facilities for an amazing trip!

3rd-5th Classes

Students in third, fourth, and fifth grade went on a field trip to the Flume Gorge. It was a perfect fall day and the students enjoyed the 2 mile nature walk. They loved the covered bridge, and the waterfalls and mountain views were amazing. The students thought the natural chasm was really cool and some of them even crawled through the "Wolf's Den" cave. Overall, this was a great field trip and we would like to thank the chaperones for all of their help.

If you need COVID-19 test kits to test your symptomatic student(s), please reach out to the nurse. She has a supply of test kits available. Unfortunately, the test kits cannot be sent home with your student as they are a medical product, but they are available for pick-up.

If your student receives a clothing provision from the nurse, please launder the item and return it back to the school.

If your student is ill or out for other reasons, please call the school no later than 9:00 a.m. A note validating the absence must accompany their return.

Living in New Hampshire requires adaptability to frequent weather changes. We will go outside for recess every day that we can.

Watch/Listen to local weather reports and help your child dress according to our guidelines (see attached letter). It is recommended that you post these in a visible place at home!

If your student is not dressed for the weather, they will report to the nurse’s office and make a phone call home during their recess time. Thank you for your support as we work to ensure a safe, fun recess time for all students!

November 1: Food Drive Kickoff

November 7: Basketball begins (3rd grade and up)

November 8: NO SCHOOL - VOTING DAY

November 8 and 9: Parent-Teacher Conferences

November 9: Picture Retake Day

November 10: Veterans Assembly

November 10: PTO Meeting - 6 PM

November 11: NO SCHOOL - Veteran's Day

November 15: Food Drive Ends

November 17: Senior Citizens Luncheon

November 23-25: NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Break

The CES PTO meets the second Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is November 10 at 6 PM in the library at CES. Please come and join us as we plan upcoming events and fundraisers! If you have any questions, please email Jessie Heath, PTO Chair, at jmheath579@gmail.com

A big thank you to our “un fundraiser” donors! The following people donated to our PTO and these funds will help us continue to hold more events for the students & families of CES. Thank you to the Allen Family, the Ashworth Family, the Burkowski Family, Courtney Clee, Jessica Ellis-Hopkins, Melissa Grover, the Lacasse Family, the LaChapelle Family, the Lane Family, Megan Marino, the Matott Family, Romy Mauer, the Sanborn Family, Jennifer Taylor, and Isabel Vaughn. We can’t thank you enough for your support!

We have many events coming up for the community. PTO’s Erin Meeh worked hard on a Tanger Grant which we were awarded! The PTO and many handy volunteers are working hard on

building a Gaga Ball Pit! This new addition to the playground should be completed by mid November. We will be selling Christmas Trees again this year. Location, dates, prices and times will be coming out soon! We have our Holiday Family Fun Night coming in early December! We will have dinner, crafts, games and a holiday raffle. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming notices! This is a classic PTO event that is always a lot of fun! We hope to see you there!

After the buses have departed, those in private vehicles may enter the school driveway and proceed to the playground entrance for car rider pick up. A staff member will escort each child safely to their ride. If folks arrive too early, the cars get backed up into the road. Please adhere to the 3:20 arrival time in order to mitigate this issue.

It is also essential that private vehicles do not drive around other vehicles (whether they are school buses or other private vehicles) while students are loading or unloading. Please wait until the vehicle in front of you begins to move.

Thank you for your help in ensuring that our routines are efficient and safe.

Regular attendance at school is critical for a student's success. The interactive nature of lessons at school today make it challenging to provide students with the same learning experiences when they return from an absence.

If a student reaches 10 half days (or 5 full days) of unexcused absences in a school year, the State of NH considers that student habitually truant. Our protocols require that we follow a process with families to ensure that the importance of attendance is understood and that unexcused absences are to be avoided.

Below I have attached a PDF of our attendance policy, as well as RSA 193:1 (Duty of a Parent - Compulsory Attendance) and RSA 189:35-a (Truancy defined).

Absences are excused in the event of sickness, required quarantine, a death in the family, or medical appointments. Other absences are considered unexcused and should be avoided.

Please note: SRSD School Board Policy JH states that for absences other than illness, parents must provide a written notice to the principal 10 days prior to the absence: the reason for the absence and how long the student will be absent.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for partnering with CES to support the success of all students.

Students enjoyed their visit to the Canterbury Fire Department in recognition of Fire Prevention Week. The Canterbury Fire Department teamed up with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fire Prevention Week. Captain Craig Simpson and Lieutenant Evan Hauptman talked about the importance of smoke alarms and having an outside meeting place in the event of a fire. Firefighter Cam Burns then demonstrated how he puts on all of his fire gear and what he looks and sounds like when he is using an air tank. Firefighter Dan Bickers explained that the air tank will have bright lights when in use. The presentation ended with Adam Fanjoy from the NH State Fire Marshal's Office and his accelerant sniffing K9 named Anthem. Anthem is a six year old yellow labrador; she was able to detect one drop of gasoline that was placed on the pavement that morning. It was a great collaboration between the school and our local fire department and the students really enjoyed it!

Continuing with the fire safety theme, Mrs. Doucette planned several health-enhancing activities for students to practice during P.E. classes. Students participated in activities such as the stop, drop, and roll, stay low and go, and fire firefighter fitness activities in order to avoid or reduce health injuries and risks. Additionally, students were able to get hands-on experience with what it takes to be a firefighter when they got to try on real firefighter equipment! Thank you to the Canterbury Fire Department for lending us some of your gear! The students enjoyed the fire safety and prevention stations while reinforcing their health skills.

Finally, Mrs. Briggs’ third grade class helped to reinforce everyone’s fire safety knowledge at a recent assembly. They led us in a fire safety game and reminded everyone of the importance of checking our smoke detectors regularly.

CES students, staff, family members and volunteers celebrated Halloween on the afternoon of October 28. Mrs. Chubb and Johnny Cashman started the festivities by leading a Halloween parade through the school and outside to the field. Once the parade was done, the classes spent the next hour enjoying the activities that were run by our amazing volunteers: the students enjoyed various relay races, the mummy wrap challenge, pumpkin bowling, and witches hat ring toss just to name a few.

We would like to thank Apple Hill Farm for donating the gourds and mini pumpkins for our gourd relay race. We would also like to thank Brian Magoon for setting up the pumpkin bowling lane and donating the pumpkins that were used for the bowling balls. Finally, we would like to recognize the following volunteers that ran the stations and our room parents for getting all of the parties set up: Katie Archer, Becca Banley-Bill, Jessica Ellis-Hopkins, Melissa Grover, Jessie Heath, Stephanie Heath, Marlyn Hedderick, Danielle Krautmann, Priscilla Lane, Romy Maurer, Jessica Pincence, Alice Todd, Isabel Vaughan, Aurora Weger, Kayleigh West, and Shannon Yale.

Finally, a very special thank you to Heather Drouin, our Library Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator, for putting the event together. Your energy, dedication and organization are so very appreciated.

This was such a fun afternoon for everyone involved!