Whittier Wire

• October 11: Staff Workshop Day - No school for students
  
• October 14: Indigenous Peoples' Day/Columbus Day
• October 18: Progress Report 1 goes home
• Week of October 21: Student Led Conferences
• November 10: Tri-Town Family 5K at 10:00am

Click here for the RSU 16 District Calendar

Students tested on Tuesday and Thursday mornings last week. We had a few students absent and others who aren't quite done, but we should be able to wrap those up soon. Overall, students did a nice job with attendance and focus during testing. This test is intended to measure growth, so the students will test again in April/May.

Students in the 7th grade enrichment program promoted the theme of peace at Whittier for this year’s International Peace Day. Students worked in teams to make peace announcements, interview other students on the topic of peace, and create Peace Points that were awarded by teachers when they witnessed students in acts of kindness. One of the student teams planned a bake sale fundraiser held at Friday night’s high school football game. With sales and donations, they raised $300 for Seeds of Peace, a peace-building and leadership development non-profit organization, with a camp right here in Maine.

International Peace Day is observed around the world each year on September 21. It was established in 1981 by a unanimous United Nations resolution, declared as a day devoted to “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.”

The chorus students have been introduced to the opportunity of auditioning for the District II Choral Festival. Band students will learn more about the instrumental festival next week. We wanted to help provide a bit of clarification and information for families who may be seeing District II forms coming home, and we also wanted to remind folks that this is an optional opportunity -- while we strongly encourage it, it certainly is not required! Please email Mrs. Edwards at jedwards@rsu16.org if you have questions about Chorus, and Mr. Williams at lwilliams@rsu16.org if you have any questions about band.

WMS District II Auditions & Festival Information for Families

School supply request: Each student should have a binder and filler paper (best option) OR a folder and a notebook. We are working on taking 4-quadrant notes this year as well as "Check Your Understanding" questions that will need to be done on paper (filler paper in binder or a notebook) and kept in a safe place (binder or folder) for reference when studying for tests.

What are students saying about math? In Mrs. Gagnon's math class, we spent much of the first few weeks learning how to work in groups in order to start building a "Thinking Classroom." We did this with brain teasers and riddles. Some might be wondering why we haven't done a whole lot of curriculum, yet... It's because building a strong base and getting comfortable with knowing how to work together correctly, problem solve together, get frustrated and still push through, listen to others, try all ideas, etc. takes time to develop. All of those pieces of good group work are KEY in making the rest of the year as successful as possible! As the saying goes, "go slow in order to go fast." Here is what students are saying about math class so far! (You'll need to zoom in!)

Wednesday, September 17th was Constitution Day. Students in Mrs. Fox's 8th grade social studies class received their pocket Constitutions. Ms. Karaffa's are coming soon.

This week we used what we know about data to organize data sets about puffins.

We are using what we have learned about puffins to design a burrow, just like Dr. Stephen Kress and his assistants did when relocating puffins back to Maine. To do this science and engineering project, we need some help with materials to build our burrows next week.

• Materials for designing/building puffin burrows:

• Cardboard tubes

• Cardboard boxes

• Masking tape

• Cereal/Oatmeal boxes

• Egg cartons

• Clean metal cans

• Clean durable plastic

• NO GLASS

Any help that we can receive with these materials would be greatly appreciated.

Mrs. Patenaude

hpatenaude@rsu16.org

Classes outside with Mr Jones: 7th Grade science classes work on observation skills, getting to know some of our neighbors... both plant and animal.

Current 8th graders are eligible to travel to Ireland in June 2026 with PRHS. This will be a 10 day STEM based tour investigating agriculture in Dublin, Galway and Kilkenny. There will be an informational parent meeting in the PRHS Library on Wed Oct 9th at 6pm. RSVP to the meeting using THIS LINK to get more information.

Whittier Middle School's Tri-Town Family 5K will take place on Sunday, November 10th, 2024 and it is open to everyone. Join us for a fun family morning on the Minot trails and fields.

Registration is open...and it's free! Let's get the word out there and make this the biggest and best event so far.

We are seeking local sponsors to help make the big day a special one. Tell your friends. All sponsors of at least $100 by October 11 will get their logo on the back of the event shirt. Interested potential sponsors should contact Shawn Vincent (svincent@rsu16.org or 998-3462). This is a great event for students, families and all members of our communities.

Visit the website to register or get more information.

Email: svincent@rsu16.org
Website: https://www.rsu16.org/bwms
Location: 1457 Maine Street, Poland, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 998-3462