SRES Eagle Times

Inspire, Create and Grow a Community of Lifelong Learners

Happy Friday SRES Families!

We had our first All School Meeting on Tuesday morning and I was so proud of our students! They listened attentively, participated, and had fun. We are off to a great start building relationships and community!! Ask your student about how our new eagle mascot greeted them!

Also, we had our first egress drill (fire drill) on Wednesday. During All School Meeting, we taught and modeled our procedure and expectations. After a brief review Wednesday morning, SRES students followed expectations to a T! YAY students!!

Wednesday, September 14th is an Early Release Day. Students will have lunch (choice of peanut butter and jelly or turkey and cheese - this is a menu change) prior to dismissal. Dismissal is at 11:45am. Buses will run their regular routes, just earlier! If you have any questions, please call the school - we are here to help!

Our Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program will begin on Tuesday! Each day fresh fruit and/or vegetables are brought into each classroom for students to enjoy. It is a great way for students to try new foods and to enjoy a healthy snack (please know that you should continue to send in a healthy snack each day as this program is not meant to serve as a daily snack; thank you.)

Friendly reminders:

• Changes to your student's day: PLEASE call the school or email sara.wunderle@wnesu.com no later than 2pm. If you do not get an email response from Sara, please call the school.
• Water ONLY in water bottles please (and thank you!).
• At drop off and pick up, please pull forward and unload/load as quickly as possible.
• If your student needs breakfast, please drop them off closer to 8am as our school day begins at 8:20am. Late drop-offs make for a challenging transition into the scheduled day.

Looking ahead:

• Monday, 9/12: After School Program begins - NOTE: Parent pick-up for ASP will be IN FRONT of the building and parents/care-givers will be required to sign their student out at pick-up.
• Wednesday, 9/14: Early Release, InService, dismissal at 11:45am; lunch will be served
• Friday, 9/24: No School, InService Day
• Thursday, 10/6: Picture Day!

As always, please reach out with questions, concerns, ideas and feedback. Together, we make a difference!

Your partner in education,

Laura Hazard

laura.hazard@wnesu.com

SRES After-School Programs (ASP) will begin Monday, September 12th!

This first session will continue through the week of 10/24 and will include the following activities:

Mondays - STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)

Tuesday - Arts & Crafts

Wednesday - Exploring Soccer

Thursday - Visit from Grafton Nature Museum staff

Friday - Board Games

All ASP sign-ups will take place through an online form this year! There will not be a paper sign-up process offered. Please note ASP will open up to Kindergarten students in January; however, we are willing to do a week-long trial period to determine if your child is ready for an extended day. Please know that at the end of the trial week, the SRES ASP will make the final decision and will let families know if your child is ready to be enrolled prior to January.

Parent pick-up for ASP will be IN FRONT of the building and parents/care-givers will be required to sign their student out at pick-up.

Here is the SRES ASP SIGN-UP LINK! You will need to fill this form out for each of your children by revisiting the link provided.

If you need assistance filling out this form please contact the SRES ASP Site Coordinator, Tina White, or call the school at (802) 869-2637. Please provide your name, phone number, and email (if this applies) when you reach out to her. Tina will reach out to you to help with this process.

Please take the time to review the ASP FAMILY POLICIES if your child is participating in ASP this year.

Sarah Doran is the new Director of After-School Programs for WNESU. Should you have any questions or concerns about your school's ASP please feel free to reach out to her. (802) 518-0963

It's been so great to see familiar and new faces at SRES! I'm looking forward to an amazing school year filled with fun and learning!

During the first week of school, I spent a lot of time in Kindergarten to help them learn new routines and expectations. Here are a few pictures of our Kindergarten students playing on the playground!

I will be visiting each classroom once a week for 30 minutes to teach a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lesson. The first few SEL lessons of the year will focus on teaching students about my role as the school counselor at SRES, as well as some team building activities.

If your child experiences a change at home (death in the family, divorce, etc.) that may impact their learning, please reach out to me so that we can discuss ways to support them at school. I am available to check in with any student who may be struggling during the school day. Developing a positive relationship with families is at the forefront of my work with students. I look forward to meeting you if I haven't yet!

As always, I am only an email or phone call away!

Stephanie Fuller, School Counselor

stephanie.fuller@wnesu.com

#(802) 869-2637

Do you want your child to be a skilled reader? Well, check this out! If you have heard the term phonemic awareness, but didn’t know what it meant, it is the ability to notice, think about and work with individual sounds in spoken words. Fun and quick activities help this skill of reading. Let’s start at the syllable level. Say birthday. Now say birthday but don’t say birth. That’s right, day! Try these words with your child for fun in the car, before bed or anywhere! Compound words are great for this activity.

-daytime

-airport

-eyesight

-football

-bedtime

INTRODUCTION

For those of you that don’t know me my name is Jennifer Vaughan. I have been the school nurse at Saxtons River Elementary School for the past 5 years. As the school nurse I hope to form a partnership with parents and students to help make these elementary school years successful. I encourage all to make healthy life choices and offer a variety of up to date and reliable health information and skills such as stress/anger management, medication management, nutritional education, and screenings to your child. I want to collaborate with your child's physician to form a relationship with him or her.

I provide health care, health information and emotional support during your student's school year. Each young person is unique and I have the opportunity to get to know your child during their years at SRES. My goal is to help students stay healthy so they can access their education.

Every student should have a yearly updated Medical Health Information Form completed by parent/guardian at the beginning of each school year.

Medications for students to take at school must be in a current pharmacy bottle and we do need a signed parent permission form for students, and a doctor's order yearly. Over the counter medication must be in an original package and accompanied by a signed permission as well.

If your student has a life threatening allergy requiring an epipen, asthma and uses an inhaler or other treatment plan please let me know so that we can develop an emergency plan and/or anaphylaxis plan.

HYDRATION

Every student should be coming to school with a water bottle. Water is the ONLY beverage that is allowed at the students desks. Any other beverages will be saved for lunch and snack time. Please avoid sending your student with beverages high in sugar such as ice tea or kool-aid.

NEED HEALTH INSURANCE?

Visit www.vermonthealthconnect.gov or call 1-855-899-9600

CURRENT COVID GUIDELINES

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child's health.

Phone: 802-869-2637 or Email: jennifer.vaughan@wnesu.com

We have been learning our classroom routines. Kindergarteners are doing a wonderful job getting used to these routines. Something new this year is having lunch in the lunchroom. Kindergarten has really done well with eating in the lunchroom with not only our class but also 1st and 2nd grade.

In Math we are working on shapes and colors. We are starting to learn more about patterns, even cutting out and coloring dinosaurs! Next week we will work on the number 2 and create our number 2 monster.

In ELA we have been working on the letter sound t and writing the letter using shaving cream. Next week we will learn letters b and f. We will also start focusing on rhyming words. Help your kindergartener by practicing rhyming words at home.

***Please remember to send water bottles with your kindergartener everyday. Also water bottles should only have water in them.

We are off to a great start in Kindergarten!

What a great first week of school that we have had! The first graders have been working hard on practicing our expectations and routines for first grade. I am excited for the rest of the school year with this enthusiastic, kind group of first graders!

☆ Reading & Writing- The first graders have been working on building our reading stamina during “read to self” time. We have learned different flexible seating options that we have for “read to self” such as floor seats and scoop rockers. We have read aloud many books about kindness and building our classroom community such as “Our Class is a Family” by Shannon Olsen and “Chrysanthemum” by Kevin Henkes and writing responses to them.

☆ Math- We have been working on building our expectations for math time. We have explored different math tools and discussed different ways we can use the math tools during this time and expectations for those tools. We started to play “math by myself” activities such as “Build It to 20” and “Mystery Boxes”.

What an amazing first couple of weeks we’ve had in 2nd grade! We have been getting to know each other with fun energizers and games. We have also been practicing our routines and talking about our Class Promise and our Hopes and Dreams for 2nd grade.

In reading, students have been learning about choosing “just right” books and reading with stamina.

In math, these mathematicians have been learning how to use our manipulatives as a tool. They have also been learning how to play partner games to support their math learning.

REMINDERS

• Please remember water bottles and a healthy snack!

• The All About Me posters are due back on Monday, September 12th.

• Next week we have an early release day on September 14th.

Math- For the first week and a half of school, the third graders have been reviewing what they learned last year. They studied what makes numbers even and odd. They also focused on place value as well as expanded form and standard form. Next week, they will start multiplication.

Reading- The third graders have been focusing on non-fiction writing. They have studied both informational texts as well as biographies. They are also practicing how to extract important facts from texts.

Writing- The third graders have been practicing how to write complete sentences from notes taken together in class from different books. While learning about bicycles, rocks and minerals and about the author Pablo Neruda, they are practicing writing 5 star sentences.

Science- The third grade students began a unit on different biomes of the world. They are focusing on deserts, oceans, grasslands, forests and the tundra. They will study unique characteristics of each biome like climate, animals and plants.

Hello From Fourth Grade!

• We are off to a fantastic start as the top dogs of SRES! Our new space in what was the art room has allowed us to create a learning space large enough for a variety of experiences. This week we welcomed a new student to our classroom making us a group of 16. We are working on following our classroom expectations of respect, kindness, active listening, and willingness to take risks.
  
  

• In math, we have practiced place value review, multiplication facts 1-10, mental math, and word problems. We have enjoyed using a center-based model, moving from one activity to the next with Mrs. Bazin. Next week we will begin Math Menu, starting with a windowpane of computation review, games, and a journal prompt.

• Reader’s Workshop has allowed us to read in small groups as well as independently. We are working on using Someone Wanted But So Then (SWBST) to retell. We are also practicing our reading stamina while curling up with a good book! Guided reading groups will begin soon!

• Have you heard your fourth grader mention “Roll-A-Story” yet? It’s our favorite! We have concocted some fabulously funny tales while learning how to include the character, setting, and conflict in a short story.

• Science/Socials Studies: We began the year with two challenges: the longest paper chain and the paper plate basket. We are now reviewing continents and oceans to kick off a geography unit.

Please remember to join our class REMIND page for communication. Information cards were sent home on the first day of school. Also, water bottles and a snack every day are appreciated!

We are having a great start to the new year in reading and math! Our time in class has been spent supporting students with learning activities in the classroom. We are so impressed by what they are already able to do and we look forward to supporting students to become the best readers and mathematicians they can be throughout this coming year! Keep your eyes open in the future for great ideas to support your child's growth in reading and math at home. This month's tip: Carve out time for reading in your family. It could be in the morning or just before bed. Even 10-15 minutes of quiet reading time will boost your child's stamina for silent reading over time!

Students Using Their Senses to Observe the Natural World

Saxtons River Elementary students began their first week of library with some outdoor learning. Students spent a short time on the grass quietly noticing the world around them, and then had the opportunity to share observations.

Gathering for a Nature Story

Dianne Clouet, the SRES librarian, attended this summer’s Nature-based Teaching and Learning Institute with many other WNESU educators which was offered in partnership with Antioch University. Ms. Clouet began this week to integrate outdoor learning into library classes, with plans to continue as weather and time allows.

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

Books and stories can come alive in a new way when integrated with nature-based learning. The children made many observations about the illustrations in this book!

For the second week of library classes, the students and I did an initial library tour, to learn and to get reacquainted with how a library is set up for them to use. We will return to this topic in many large and small ways over the year.

2nd Grade students played a wonderfully fair and inclusive game of "Everyone is it Tag." This game requires agility, decision-making skills, running, and fair play. See two of our 2nd Grade stars settle a tie with a quick round of Rock/Paper Scissors.

Kindergarten, First and Second Grades have begun their lessons in our First Steps In Music Curriculum. The Feierabend Approach is “grounded in the belief that the combination of having the ability to sing/internalize melody, move/internalize beat, and be moved by music, are attributes that define a musical person”. Our curriculum includes creative and expressive movement, keeping the beat to songs and classical music, singing and vocal exploration, vocal improvisation and listening. Each class, we complete our musical workout and gain valuable hands-on musical experience. We are currently on week 2 of our 12 week unit.

Third and Fourth Grades have begun the year moving, singing, playing instruments and learning rhythm (Conversational Solfege Curriculum). Third Grade is learning duple rhythm patterns (rhythms that divide the beat into groups of 2 or 4) and Fourth Grade is learning 6/8 rhythms (that divide the beat into groups of 3). We have been folk dancing and moving expressively to the music (move-its).

I look forward to a super year in Music at SRES!

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Hello SRES Artists!

We have had our first Art class this year in our new location. We have moved to a new location in the school and have attached some photos of the new space for you to see. We have begun our introduction to this new space and will continue to learn and review these new room changes. I look forward to a creative year!

Mr. Palmisano

Email: laura.hazard@wnesu.com
Website: https://sres.wnesu.org/
Location: 15 School Street, Saxtons River, VT, USA
Phone: (802) 869-2637
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sresvt