AES Eagle Eye Tribune

February 7, 2025

Dear Families and Community,

The 100th day of school is almost here! 🎉 Students have been learning and growing for nearly 100 days, and many classrooms will be celebrating this milestone in creative ways. Keep an eye out for communication from your child’s teacher via email or classroom take-home folders for details on how their class will be celebrating.

As we navigate the colder months, we are seeing an increase in illnesses both in our school and throughout the state. Please remember these simple but important health practices:

✔️ Wash hands frequently 🧼
✔️ Cover coughs and sneezes 🤧
✔️ Stay home if you have a fever 🤒

Additionally, around this time each year, we provide families with a mid-year reminder about attendance policies, including the school district's guidelines and state laws regarding attendance. Below, you’ll find a refresher on approved vs. unapproved absences, as well as our illness policy. Full details are available on the AES website and in the AES Student Handbook.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the main office.

📚 March is Read Across America Month! 📚

We are excited to celebrate a month full of reading adventures with fun and engaging activities! Throughout March, we will welcome mystery readers into our classrooms to share their love of books with students.

As part of our exciting Read Across America celebrations, we invite you to be a mystery reader in one or more of our classrooms! 📚✨ Throughout March, we will have special opportunities for mystery readers to visit classrooms and share a book with students.

If you’re interested in joining us as a mystery reader, who has a child at AES or are a community member invested in student success, we would love to have you join us!

—either during Read Across America Month or at other times throughout the school year—please fill out this form.

While we are hoping for a long list of volunteers eager to read to our students, we may not be able to schedule everyone right away. However, we plan to continue inviting guests into our school for reading opportunities and special projects throughout the year, so there will be plenty of chances to participate! Thank you for your support in helping us inspire a love of reading! 💙📖

Please sign up using this link: mystery reader sign-up and we will reach out before February break with more details.

Thank you for your continued support at AES!

Warmest regards,

Beth Gibeny

Principal - Anterim Elementary School

"Where students learn to soar"

Next week (Feb. 10-14), we’re celebrating Kindness Week at AES! 💛 While kindness is something we practice every day, this week we’ll take extra time to reflect on what it means to be kind, complete acts of kindness in our school and community, and enjoy stories about how to be a "Cool Bean"!

Students who are caught being kind will earn a bean to add to our school-wide Cool Bean jar! 🏆 Let’s work together to fill it up!

💬 Family Connection: Please take a moment to talk with your child about kindness and encourage them to think of ways they can show kindness at home. 💕 How will they be a Cool Bean this week? 😃

Let’s make it a week full of kindness! 💙✨

Upcoming Events: (see AES Google Calendar for more)

1/20 – No School

1/31 - Community Meeting 8:50AM - First grade present, all are welcome

- Principal Coffee Hour 9:15 - 10:15

2/11- PTO Meet

2/14 - Community Meeting 8:50AM

- Principal Coffee Hour 9:15 - 10:15

2/10 - 2/14 - Kindness Week

4/12- Skate Night 6PM-9PM

Attendance Policy Reminder for all Families

As we progress through the winter season and sickness is around we thought a reminder of the school’s attendance policy would be helpful. While it is important to stay home when sick, please be sure to contact the school with any questions.

Student Attendance (From the AES Handbook)

Regular and punctual patterns of attendance are required of each student. Student attendance is the responsibility of the parents and students. While absences due to illness or other reasons are sometimes unavoidable, we encourage parents to make every effort to minimize unnecessary student absences. To assist parents or guardians in fulfilling this responsibility, we will inform you of excessive absences if they occur. The following are considered to be excused absences: (a) illness, (b) recovery from an injury, (c) required court attendance, (d) medical and dental appointments, (e) death in the immediate family, observation or celebration of a religious holiday, and (g) other reasons approved by the principal or permitted by the law. Any absence that has not been excused for any of these reasons will be considered an unexcused absence. If parents/guardians wish for their child to be absent for a reason not listed in the excused absences noted above, the parent/guardian must provide a written explanation of the reason for such absence, including why the student will be absent and for how long the student will be absent.

The principal will decide as to whether the stated reason for the student’s absence constitutes good cause and will notify the parent/guardian of his/her decision.

New Hampshire state law, RSA 193:1 Duty of Parent; Compulsory Attendance by Pupil, requires:

A parent of any child at least 6 years of age and under 18 years of age shall cause such child to attend school ... Such child shall attend full time when such school is in session unless: [the child] has been temporarily excused upon the request of the parent for purposes agreed upon by the school authorities and the parent. Such excused absences shall not be permitted if they cause a serious adverse effect upon the student's educational progress.

Please refer to the ConVal School Board Policy JH, Attendance, Absenteeism, and Truancy. A copy of this policy can also be found on the ConVal School District website, as well as in the Antrim Elementary School Handbook.

Winter benchmark assessments have been completed and analyzed, we want to ensure you receive feedback on your child’s current performance. Reports from NWEA and AIMSWeb will be sent home prior to February break.

In accordance with New Hampshire HB 377 and RSA 200:59, all students in Kindergarten through Third Grade are screened three times per year to help identify potential risk factors for literacy challenges. Families of any student flagged for risk during this screening will receive a letter.

These letters will be followed by a detailed intervention and instructional plan designed to target and address the specific skill areas of concern.

If you have any questions about the screening process, the information in the letter (if you receive one), or need further clarification, please feel free to contact Beth Gibney at bgibney@conval.edu or by calling the school.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support.

Calling all families to join PTO! Without your support, we will not be able to continue offering amazing activities and events for our students and families. Please consider attending a PTO meeting and/or reaching out to our PTO president, Eren Pills-Martin, at thepilsmartins@gmail.com to learn more about how you can help. Our next meeting will be on February 11th at 3:45 PM—we would love to have you join us!

The Community Engagement Community is also looking for a family member and a community member to join the community. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Beth Gibney at bgibney@conval.edu or call the main office.

Jumping Jacks

A great strategy for giving your body and brain a break and support to refocus.

1) Jumping jacks 10-20

Perform 10-20 jumping jacks. Change the speed of them – slow to fast, fast to slow, etc.

Library News

This Week: This week in the library Fourth Grade Group B learned about different awards and created their own award to give to books. Ms. Voorhees’ class learned about the parts of a story and Mrs. Del Rossi’s class learned about character archetypes.

Next Week: Next week Mr. Morris's third grade, Ms. Revaz’s second grade and Mrs. Donovan’s PreK have specials.

In First Friends 2 we have been learning about penguins through books, videos, and crafts. Ask your child to share some facts they have learned. We also have been rocking out to Jack Hartman’s penguin dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf0uKmKwnKs

First Friends 1 had its Grand Opening of Our First Friends Coffee Shop this week. The students are super excited and are enjoying this activity in the classroom.

This week, Ms. Lawler’s class enjoyed exploring the forest now that it’s covered in snow! We were finally able to hang up our Cheerio strings that we made before Christmas. We can’t wait to go back into the forest next week to see if any birds, squirrels or other animals feasted on the treat we left. Our time in the woods is always filled with creativity, teamwork, imagination and exploration. Forest Fridays are one of our favorite parts of the week!

The first graders have worked hard on their NWEA test this week and last week! They all did EXTREMELY well! We are so proud!

The first graders worked hard on writing their first Pen Pal letters to first graders at PES. They are eagerly waiting for a letter back. They are so excited!

The first graders have been working together with Ms. Brett on their Animals in Winter project. They have done some online and research to write about their chosen animal. They have needed to research and write facts about their animal’s body type, what they eat, their life cycle, their habitat and any interesting facts.

At the most recent Community Meeting, our second grade students took center stage to share some valuable test-taking tips with the entire school. These young learners offered helpful advice on staying calm, using good test-taking strategies, and keeping a positive mindset during testing. They practiced these tips themselves as they completed the NWEA winter assessments in both math and reading, as well as the Dyslexia Screening. Their impressive attitudes and determination during the testing process were truly inspiring! The second graders demonstrated great grit, showing us all how to approach challenges with confidence and perseverance.

Ms. Revaz's class has achieved an amazing milestone, earning 100 eagles since January 6th. To celebrate this accomplishment, we enjoyed a fun and cozy Stuffy Day! Way to go, second graders!

Ms. Del Rossi’s readers earned a badge this week in Epic for reading 250 books! Congratulations Rock Star Readers!

Our third graders have been soaring through an exciting unit all about owls over the past two weeks! Here's a glimpse into what we've been up to:

We began by observing mounts of four fascinating owl species: the Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, Northern Saw-Whet Owl, and Snowy Owl. It was incredible to see these amazing creatures up close and learn about the unique features that make them so special.

From there, we put on our scientist hats and created a list of questions about owls. With curiosity leading the way, we dove into research to uncover answers. For example, we compared an owl's eye to our own and discovered how their vision helps them see so well at night. We also examined their feathers alongside hawk feathers, noticing the adaptations that allow owls to fly silently.

One of the highlights of our learning was dissecting owl pellets! Students had a blast uncovering tiny bones, skulls, and fur from rodents, which gave us a firsthand look at an owl's diet.

Ask your third grader what they found most fascinating about owls—I’m sure they’ll have plenty to share!

We are excited to announce the arrival of a new eaglet at AES!

Congratulations to Mrs. Beaumont on the birth of their baby: Ella Beaumont arrived Saturday and we are so happy for their family.

This week in Muzart:

First friends made their own clay lollipops by mixing colors and coiling clay! These projects will be ready to come home sometime next week!

First Grade created Winter Hats that show off different kinds of lines they can use when creating patterns in art.

2nd Grade finished off their Landscape tree projects that show near and far with different sized watercolor trees.

Fourth Grade is working on moving between Am and C on the ukulele while playing along to songs. In art students have started creating their own canvas paintings. Students must plan their painting with a full color picture before moving onto painting to show planning and envisioning as part of the artistic process.

Classroom Lessons (K-4):

Kindergarten: In this week’s lesson, your child learned that kindness is a way to show people that they care and that doing kind acts can make both the giver and the receiver feel good. They shared personal examples and discussed how they felt when they gave or received kind acts. Help your child think of a kind act they can do for someone and support them in carrying it out. With your child, discuss how they think the receiver of the kind act felt. Ask your child how they felt doing a kind act for someone.

Mrs. Sullivan’s Class: We continued our bullying prevention unit with a lesson about being upstanders. Students learned the difference between bystanders and upstanders. We discussed the four ways bystanders can become upstanders by helping to stop bullying: be a buddy, interrupt, speak out (refuse), and/or tell an adult (report). Students reviewed a variety of scenarios and identified ways bystanders intervened and became upstanders to help stop bullying.

Ms. Voorhees’s Class: We continued our bullying prevention curriculum with a lesson about refusing bullying. After reviewing the definition of bullying and how to report bullying students watched a video of a student refusing bullying. We reviewed what it means to be assertive and students worked with a partner to practice refusing bullying using a variety of scenarios.

2nd Grade: We continued our bullying prevention curriculum with a lesson about refusing bullying. After reviewing the definition of bullying and how to report bullying students watched a video of a student refusing bullying. We reviewed what it means to be assertive and students worked with a partner to practice refusing bullying using a variety of scenarios.

3rd Grade: We continued our bullying prevention curriculum with a lesson about refusing bullying. After reviewing the definition of bullying and how to report bullying students watched a video of a student refusing bullying. We reviewed what it means to be assertive and students worked with a partner to practice refusing bullying using a variety of scenarios.

4th Grade: In this week’s lesson, your child worked with a team to see how many different ways they could rethink a variety of situations. With your child, create a “Rethink It!” chart to display at home. Make a list of questions that everyone can use to rethink when emotions are taking over and you just need a little help to see things in a different way.

Email: bgibney@conval.edu
Website: https://aes.conval.edu/

Location: 10 School Street, Antrim, NH, USA
Phone: (603)588-6371