Hello, Howard!

There are lots of fun full activities for Howard Students coming up this month - starting tonight and tomorrow with pumpkin carving at Vineyard Farms.

Our PRIDE theme of the month is Determination. Students will be exploring what it means to work hard and keep trying. How does determination help you in your work, hobbies, and life? Talk to your kids about the importance of determination.

October 14th - No School

October 15th - Fun Run

October 15th - first School Council meeting (in person and virtual) at 2:45pm

October 22nd - Coffee Hour with Mrs. Giuffre (in person and virtual) at 9am

October 25th - PRIDE Assembly

October 31st - Costume Day

Missing a sweatshirt? Football glove? Have your child check the lost and found - located outside the cafeteria near the bus exit.

Student Council is happy to announce this year’s homeroom representatives:

4th Grade

Magnuson -Alexis McLean, Sadie Fidalgo

Graf - Prince Moreira, Carly McNeill

Torres - Nate Kelley, Chase Weatherbee

Ferriera - JJ Gaquin, Michaela Hzrud

Hegarty - Aubrey Enos, Jack Wannel

5th Grade

Keady - Emilia Geherty, Harlow Lucas

Duffy - Angel Anoiser, Jake Ryan

Richmond - Mikelle Fowler, Lucy Foster

Holland - Jack Pope, Bob Connor

Olsen - Shea Marchetti, Sarah Leahy

6th Grade

Peckrill - Kepler Langley, Elijah Baptista Pereira

Wenzel - Ryan O'Keefe, Mia Melchert

McLaughlin - Jake Foley, Ethan Luce

Mills - Gio Tosches, Jackson Pongonis

Berry - Ellie Mulcahy, Levi Mayhew

We also want to remind everyone that we are in the middle of our canned food drive. Please consider sending non-perishables in with your child to benefit the West Bridgewater food pantry. The food drive ends on Monday (Oct. 7th) and the homeroom in each grade with the most canned goods wins an extra recess.

Student Council is excited to announce their first THEME DAY - are invited to wear a costume to school on Thursday, October 31st.

Costumes should meet the following criteria:

• No masks
• No weapons
• No inflatables
• Nothing that interferes with student safety
• Nothing that interferes with learning

Costumes should be easily removable.

2:45 to 3:15 PM in the Gym

We have our first club meeting on Oct. 8th. All students who turned in their forms on Oct. 4th and paid their club dues will be added to the Little Leo's Google Classroom. Mrs. Mills will share a list of new members with teachers to clarify who is in the club. We will be getting this year started with our Annual Coat drive to help Anton's Coats for Kids, as well as brainstorming other projects to help people in need. We can't wait to get started helping people!

On 0ct. 9th, twenty of our 5th and 6th Grade Little Leo's will go to the Senior Center to play games as one of our fun community outreach activities. We also will help serve and clean up lunch while we are there, and come back before the school the day ends. It's always a lot of fun!

Please donate gently used winter coats of all sizes. There will be a box for donations in the Foyer by the office starting 10/15. If possible please put coats in bags with a label that says how many coats are donated. Our coat drive lasts until 12/10/24. Thank you!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy fall season! Thank you to everyone who continues to send in updated physical forms and immunization records. Letters regarding missing health documents will go out this month. Please reach out to Nurse Mando if you have questions on these to ensure that your child’s health file is complete.

Please complete the Annual Student Health Update form at your earliest convenience, if you haven’t done so already. If your child requires any medications to be given at school, please bring in labeled medications in the original containers with physician orders. Please DO NOT SEND ANY MEDICATIONS WITH YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL.

Communication throughout the school year is very important, so please reach out to me if any health information changes or if your child isn’t feeling well. I will be checking in periodically if anything arises while your child is at school or to follow up on prolonged absences.

Otherwise, we want to keep everyone healthy while at school so please keep them home if they are not feeling well. Please refer to our Sick Child Guidelines and school health policies at https://www.wbridgewaterschools.org/page/health-services and reach out to me directly with any concerns.

As always, please feel free to reach Nurse Mando if you have any questions or concerns: smando@wbridgewater.com or 508-894-1250 ext 3115.

All the students are learning to draw a face using proportions. Each grade is putting a special element into their project. The fourth graders are drawing mirrored sunglasses on their portraits that reflect somewhere or something they like. The fifth grader's self-portraits are folded, and when you unfold them you can see all the things they like and are important to them. The sixth graders are drawing things about themselves around or one one side of their portraits.

We finished our cooperative games unit and have begun our kicking unit! Here students are seen practicing their dribbling, passing, and shooting skills! Also it would be appreciated to add a reminder to please bring athletic sneakers to PE no Crocs despite "sport" mode. Crocs do not provide proper ankle support.

What is a great heart, literally? We're answering that question by reading and examining the nonfiction text The Circulatory Story. During our exploration of this text, students are working on the following skills: main idea & details, summarizing, text features, identifying text evidence, making inferences, elements of poetry, capitalization, paraphrasing, informative summary writing, using commas, informative paragraph, narrative summary writing, figurative language and more.

We have begun working on multi-digit addition and subtraction in math. Later during the month, we will move onto multiplying multi-digit numbers by a 1-digit number.

In social studies, we will be completing our unit on continents and oceans and map skills.

For science this month we will be focusing on adaptations and how they help an animal or plant survive in its environment.

Students will explore the PRIDE theme of determination this month, visit the public library, and dress up for Halloween!

Students are learning about the Nez Perce culture through oral storytelling of "Coyote and the Monster". Students are reinforcing their collaborative speaking skills by taking part in Socratic seminars.

Students are completing Topic 2, which is adding and subtracting decimals. They are moving on to Topic 3, which is Multiplication of Whole Numbers. Reminder that students need to be fluent with their math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).

Students are learning about the Westward Expansion and early colonization.

In Science, we are studying Ecosystems, which includes food chains, food webs, habitats.

Through poetry, students will learn and express what determination means to them. On October 17th, students will travel to Sturbridge Village to experience what life was like in the 1800s.

Students are currently reading the novel Bud, not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. We are exploring the theme of hardship during the Great Depression. Students recently completed a Focusing Question Task writing assignment on this topic.

This month we will be finishing Topic 1: Understanding Numerical and Algebraic Expressions and we will have our first math test. Next we will be starting Topic 2: Solving Equations and Inequalities. Students will learn how to solve algebraic equations using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We will also learn how to write and graph inequalities.

This month we are learning about major turning points for early humans in the Paleolithic & Neolithic Age and how these turning points led to the rise of civilization. We did a survival simulation this week to see what life was like during the last ice age, and the consensus was that it was tough. Besides surviving, we are practicing our reading, note taking, timeline and map reading skills. We are learning about how the development of language, mastering fire, and agriculture will lead to civilization. There will be a unit project before the unit test, where students will bring in materials if needed. Keep an eye out for the email announcing the project in a couple of weeks.

Students in science class are finishing their unit on cells! They have used microscopes to check out and compare different cells. Some specimens they observed were amoeba, paramecium, a pumpkin stem, onion skin, hair, and a flea. They also just finished an in class project reviewing the cell organelles.

Students are finishing their Research Project on our changing oceans! They are creating three infographics based on their topic of choice: plastic pollution, seal level rise, or overfishing. Next week we are making posters, google slides and videos for Chromebook expectations.

The 6th Grade will be going to Patriot’s Place for a field trip on Monday, October 7th. Students are encouraged to wear their favorite football team attire and weather appropriate gear. Students do not need to bring anything but themselves (no additional money or phones please). Students should arrive at school on time, and we will back from Gillette before dismissal.

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to chaperone! We sincerely appreciate your support! All chaperones who are going on the trip should receive an email today (Friday) with details for Monday. Thank you so much!

Information regarding Nature's Classroom (Outdoor Classroom) was sent home at the curriculum night in September. Students will be attending the trip to Nature's Classroom April 14 - 17, 2025. They will be attending the site at Grotonwood, in Groton, MA. There are no forms to fill out at this time, however the first payment serves as confirmation that your child is attending. The first payment of $155 is due by October 21, 2024. The total cost of the trip is $465. If you would like to pay in full you can make this as your first and only payment. Please make checks payable to the Howard School. If finances are a concern please contact Mrs. Giuffre by 10/21. As a reminder, we are also looking for chaperones for our trip. Chaperones must commit to the entire trip. If you are interested in chaperoning, please email your interest to Mrs. Wenzel (mwenzel@wbridgewater.com). If more chaperones are interested than required a lottery will be held in February.

Big thanks to Mr. Peckrill and 6th grade journalists for their work on October's Staff Spotlight!

Our names are Matthew Mulherin and Joe Sances and we interviewed Ms. Duffy, a fifth-grade teacher. She went to college at the University of New Hampshire, and her favorite subject is ELA because she loves to read. This school year she is looking forward to the field trips to the Museum of Science and Sturbridge Village. She has a dog named Snickers and two older brothers, one lives in New York, the other in New Hampshire. She has wanted to be a teacher ever since she was young. A special talent she has is breakdancing. One of her favorite tv shows is Gilmore Girls. She loves to ski and she entered her first marathon not too long ago. This year for Halloween all the fifth grade teachers are dressing up as the characters from Inside Out, Ms. Duffy being Disgust. Her favorite candy is a Twix bar.

Hi, our Names are Enzo and James. We interviewed Ms. Lacoste. She is the new behavior technician here at Howard School. She went to Wheaton College for her bachelor's degree and earned her Master's from Capella University. Her favorite subject is psychology. She has a dog named Tucker. Her favorite Halloween movie is Hocus Pocus, and her favorite Halloween candy is Twix. This year she is looking forward to helping others. Welcome Ms. Lacoste, and we look forward to a great year.

Hi, we are Cecilia Farrell and Harper Wolfe and we interviewed our custodian Bill Gibson. Bill went to Norfolk County Agricultural High School and his favorite subject in school was landscape management. We also asked him what he was looking forward to this year. He answered with a successful year and that he loves his job, working with the students makes it so much better. He and his father share an apartment and have a cat named Henry. When he was a kid he grew up on a local farm and wanted to be a farmer when he was little. His favorite movie is Down Periscope. His hobbies are building model boats with his dad, Legos, and fishing. If your favorite candy is Butterfinger, you have the same favorite as Bill. And for Halloween he is going to be…….Himself.

This brand new middle grade mystery is set in "Britain's eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park." Click here for Ms. Giuffre's book talk!

Steve Sheinkin will be visiting Howard School on November 19th.

Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin will be at An Unlikely Story in Plainville on Nov. 20th. Click here for tickets.

Enrichment Session Signups Are Live!

Hello WB families! New after-school classes and returning favorites at both RLM and Howard—click the links for all the details. Session 2 Enrichment Classes begin the week of October 28, so sign up today!