Eddy Elementary Updates

We have had a great kickoff to the 24-25 school year! There has been a lot of excitement, smiles on faces, and energy abounding everywhere. Staff and students have been thrilled to come back and jump back into learning. We had a fun opening day assembly, a thoughtful 9/11 assembly where we celebrated and thanked our local heroes, and routines are in place across the school, ranging from breakfast to recess and lunch, classrooms to specialist classes.

We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 through October 15. This is an opportunity to highlight leaders of Hispanic heritage who have been doctors, thespians, athletes, politicians, chefs, and leaders! This helps our students understand more about the world around them, near and far. If you would like to learn more about Hispanic Heritage Month, please click on this link for more information from Smithsonian Museum: https://latino.si.edu/learn/teaching-and-learning-resources/hispanic-heritage-month-resources

October is Bullying Awareness Month. Throughout the month, we will work to encourage students to be kind to one another and build opportunities for students to better understand their classmates' perspectives and one another, including a mix-it-up lunch later in October (exact date is still to be determined). Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

• 10/5: National Do Something Nice Day - we will celebrate this on Friday, 10/4 and encourage students and staff alike to do something nice, big or small, to spread kindness to others!
• 10/7: Bullying Awareness Day: please wear orange in recognition of bullying awareness and spreading kindness.
• 10/9: Walk to School Day to build community and connections! All are invited to meet at the rail trail parking lot at the corner of Underpass Road and Long Pond Road at 7:15am on Wednesday, October 9. Students are welcome to include their siblings, parents, caregivers, and students may roll, walk, or ride to school. Students may meet us at the rail trail parking lot or where the rail trail intersects at Stony Brook and walk the path together down to school to get in some exercise and build community. All are welcome!

This is a reminder about students' personal electronic devices: students are not permitted to use their personal electronic devices during the school day, including phones, tablets, smart watches, and other personal electronic devices. This policy applies to both the school day, as well as before and after school, including on school buses. If your student ever needs to get a hold of a parent or caregiver, they may always ask to call from the main office, and Mrs. Reeves can assist with having your student call you; if your student is not feeling well, they may let their teacher know that they need to see Nurse Miller, and she can assess their well-being and be in touch with you if there is a medical concern. If you ever need to get a hold of your student, please just call the main office, and we will get a message to your student in a timely manner. If students have a phone, it should be turned off and stowed away; if a student has a smart watch, they are not permitted to text or call during the school day or on the bus. Instead, if there is a problem, your student should speak to an adult at school and we can help solve the problem! Thank you for your help with enforcing this policy. If you have any questions about it, do not hesitate to let Principal Guditus know. This policy is listed on p.13 of the Brewster Elementary Schools Handbook 24-25 under "Personal Technology Devices."

Nauset Regional Public Schools is following the Massachusetts Department of Health recommendations for respiratory illness, which can be found here: Respiratory Illness guidance, COVID, FLU, RSV. For additional information, you can go to the Nauset Health Services website and click on Health Links https://www.nausetschools.org/page/health-services. If you have any questions about this, please contact Nurse Melissa Miller at millerm@nausetschools.org.

There will be a COVID and flu vaccine clinic on Thursday, November 14, 2024 between 3:00pm and 5:00pm at Stony Brook Elementary School. If you would like to participate, you must register online to schedule an appointment. Go here to sign up, or click here for the flyer for more information.

Each public school in Massachusetts is required to have a school council, which is a site-based body comprised of parents/guardians, staff members, and a community member. This body is responsible for providing input to the annual school budget, the school handbook, and the school improvement plan. We will meet each approximately once per month (there may be some months where we do not need to meet) for an hour from 2:15-3:15 on a Wednesday at Eddy Elementary. If you are interested in participating, please send Principal Steve Guditus an email at gudituss@nausetschools.org.

The fifth grade recycling club is off to a great start! Students have volunteers during recess on Thursdays to collect recyclables from around the school. Items that go into these bins are plastic, cardboard, paper, and aluminum cans. We are looking forward to a great school year, and we know that with the efforts of consistent recycling, we can make a difference in our world! Composting has continued during breakfasts and lunches each school day, with Black Earth Composting picking up our compostable food waste each Friday morning to be used composted for future use as soil and manure.

• Fifth grade is off to a great start this year! In mathematics, fifth graders are focusing on utilizing various strategies to determine the volume of rectangular prisms and composite figures. In ELA, we are starting to roll out our new curriculum, Expeditionary Learning, where students are applying background knowledge of human rights and begin to read the novel Esperanza Rising. The theme of the first module of the new ELA curriculum in fifth grade is “Stories of Human Rights.” To learn more about the first module of our new fifth grade ELA curriculum, you can watch this short video.

• Fourth grade students recently met with their Kindergarten buddies, where each fourth grade class is paired up with a Kindergarten class. This year, fourth grade students and Kindergarten students will be learning together on a monthly basis throughout the year, helping students learn from one another, and providing an opportunity for students to develop their leadership skills. We will be exploring Eddy’s vernal pools with Mass Audubon later this month before sharing our learning with Kindergarten buddies. Thank you to the Brewster PTO for your financial support of this Kindergarten-Fourth Grade partnership by funding transportation for joint field trips this year. Fourth grade is also starting the fourth grade new ELA curriculum, Expeditionary Learning, this coming week. The first module’s theme is “Poetry, Poets and Becoming Writers.” You can learn more about our new ELA curriculum’s first module in fourth grade by viewing this video. We are also exploring features and processes of the earth’s surface in science, and exploring geography, maps, and geographic landforms in social studies.

• Third grade students are engaging in multi-digit subtraction problems in mathematics, practicing automaticity and “borrowing” from the tens place to subtract in the ones place. Third grade is also starting the new ELA curriculum, Expeditionary Learning, where the first module’s theme is “Overcoming Learning Challenges Near and Far.” Third grade students have done a fabulous job of transitioning to Eddy Elementary, and have smoothly learned the routines at Eddy, including cafeteria and recess routines and celebrated with Free Seat Friday this past week! For more information about our new ELA curriculum’s first module in third grade, you can watch this video.

Thank you to all who participated in the Brewster PTO Mum Sale! The Brewster PTO sold 689 mums, making this a hugely successful fundraiser! A big thank you to Agway of Cape Cod for their donations of mums, to the Brewster Baptist Church for allowing the PTO to hold pickups there, and to the Brewster PTO for organizing this fundraiser to support our students, staff, and programming!

Fall Parent/Caregiver-Teacher-Student Conferences will be held in late October. Your student's classroom teacher will reach out to schedule a time for you to meet with them the evening of Thursday, October 24 or Friday afternoon, October 25. Please reach out directly to your student's teacher with any questions or concerns about scheduling your student's conference.

We welcome two familiar faces to our music program at Eddy! Stacey Faris returns as a music teacher, but has shifted to becoming our instrumental music teacher, providing small group instrumental lessons to students, and conducting the band and a new string orchestra. Mrs. Faris also teaches third grade general music classes. Fifth grade returning instrument players meet after school on Wednesdays from 2-3pm, and are working hard preparing to play at the Nauset Regional High School homecoming football game on October 18. This is very exciting for our music program and our students; they cannot wait to play with the high school pep band! Our string players are all learning how to play “twinkle” using various challenging rhythm patterns and are eagerly learning how to pizzicato and bow properly to demonstrate at our first concert. All beginning instrumentalists are singing and playing their parts using the first three notes of their music, and it is not too late for anyone to start an instrument! If your student is interested, please see Mrs. Faris and she can get you started! Ben Colgan has returned to Eddy Elementary School, but as a teacher! Mr. Colgan is a Brewster native and attended Eddy Elementary and is a graduate of Nauset Regional High School. Mr. Colgan is teaching fourth and fifth grade general music classes and directing the chorus on Tuesdays after school from 2-3pm. The chorus is going strong, preparing for the winter concert. We are learning several holiday songs encompassing Christmas, Hanukkah, and appreciation of the winter season. Students are more than welcome to join the chorus regardless of musical background at any time; please see Mr. Colgan on Tuesdays and Thursdays if you would like to join the chorus!

Did you know that we have a boxtops for education fundraising campaign run through the Brewster PTO? No more cutting of UPCs and boxtops! You can download a free app to your phone by clicking here, and choose Eddy Elementary School. It’s as simple as snapping a picture of your paper receipt from the grocery store or uploading a digital one if you purchase your groceries online. It all adds up! Thanks for your willingness to help with this!

A big thank you to Nurse Melissa Miller and Afternoon Custodian Kyle Anderson, who together took on the responsibility of tending to our front garden at the entrance of the school. Nurse Miller and Mr. Anderson worked together to write a grant for funding of supplies, and worked closely with a master gardener to make a master plan, and then with students, weeded, tended, cared for, and improved our entranceway garden at Eddy after school last spring and over the summer. Next up this fall is to continue the work in the front garden, and write a grant to create a pollinator garden around the flagpole in the front circle. If you are interested in helping with this project by lending some elbow grease or a donation of plants or expertise, please contact Nurse Miller at millerm@nausetschools.org.

We are celebrating our students and staff reading! Research shows that even a few minutes of reading each day helps improve academic performance, cognitive development, and builds student vocabulary. If you have a photo of your student reading over the summer or this fall, please send it in with your student to the main office or you can email it to Steve Guditus at gudituss@nausetschools.org and we can add the reading photo to our community reading board!

Welcome to Officer Jordan Frisbie, who is our new school liaison officer. You will see Officer Frisbie at morning dropoff and at school events throughout the school year, and students will see Officer Frisbie at breakfast and lunch, and also in classrooms to be present in our school and build our sense of community. Thank you to Lieutenant Charlie Mawn for his years as school liaison; Lieutenant Mawn is still working for the Brewster Police, but has passed the school liaison role to Officer Frisbie.

Samantha Legg is the Eddy Technology and STEM interventionist teacher. Sammy is a Chicago native, attended the Colleges of Hobart and William Smith, and has just wrapped up her masters degree in education from Worcester State University. Sammy teaches each student their weekly specialist class of Technology, where students learn about digital citizenship and the DLCS standards (digital learning and computer science). Ms. Legg is also kicking off the coding club soon (signups will be announced next week), co-teaches fifth grade science with Mr. Gagnon and Mrs. Brunelle, and will provide math intervention and enrichment to students. Ms. Legg is excited about learning and growing with each of her students this year. We are thrilled to have her be part of the Eddy community!

If your student is in need of a winter coat, please contact Sonja Bono, our Eddy school adjustment counselor, by October 31, 2024. Mrs. Bono can be reached via email at bonos@nausetschools.org.

Nauset Superintendent Clenchy asked each principal to record a PSA (public service announcement) about their school at Lower Cape TV in Orleans a few weeks ago. Below are the PSAs from each school in case you want to see a peek into the world of each of our Nauset schools!

• Eastham PSA
• Eddy PSA
• Wellfleet PSA
• NRHS PSA
• NRMS PSA
• Orleans PSA
• Stony Brook PSA
• Superintendent PSA

• Tuesday, 10/8/24: Nauset SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council) @ 5:00pm at Nauset Regional Middle School
• Wednesday, 10/9/24: Walk to School Day @ 7:15am
• Wednesday, 10/9/24: Brewster PTO Meeting @ 7:00pm at Eddy or remotely here
• Thursday, 10/17/24: Brewster School Committee @ 6:30pm at Town Hall or remotely here
• Tuesday, 10/22/24: Nauset MLPAC (Multilingual Parent Advisory Council) @ 5:00pm at Snowy Owl in Brewster
• Thursday, 10/24/24: Evening Parent/Caregiver-Teacher-Student Conferences
• Friday, 10/25/24: Afternoon Parent/Caregiver-Teacher-Student Conferences