Whittier Wire

May 27, 2024

Upcoming Events:

May 29: Grade 8 SRB Election Day
June 3: Grade 8 Step-Up Day
June 5: Band & Chorus Concert
June 12: Grade 8 Field Trip
June 12: Grade 7 Community Day
June 13: Grade 8 Promotion Ceremony 6:00pm
June 14: Last Day

Whittier Wellness Day

Whittier Wellness Day was a tremendous success; thanks to the organization and preparation of our staff, expertise of our special guests, and students who came with great energy and outstanding participation.

The day started off with Mrs. Purdy's reading celebration in the auditorium. Students were recognized for their commitment to reading this year and Mystery Readers were revealed.

Next, students participated in choice activities. We tried to keep groups to reasonable sizes so students may not have gotten their top choices, but their attitudes were excellent and they seemed to find fun wherever they landed. There were some very active programs and others that were more slow-paced. Wellness can mean a lot of different things.

After lunch, Roundtables competed in tug-of-war and Minute-to-Win-It games. There were lots of laughs and, again, high levels of participation.

We closed the day in the auditorium with a special presentation from Christy Gardner and her team. From the Mission Working Dogs website:

"Christy Gardner is the Founder and President of Mission Working Dogs. Christy's passion for dogs has deep, personal roots. Serving as a Sergeant in the United States Army Military Police in Asia, Christy survived an injury in 2006 which eventually led her to accept her golden retriever service dog named Moxie in 2010. The two became inseparable and Moxie has accompanied Christy on many "missions" of their own, including competing with Team USA as an athlete on the Women’s Para Ice Hockey Team and on the USA Para Surfing Team. Christy is a World ranked Para thrower and is currently aspiring to make the US Paralympic Team for Tokyo 2020. As a certified dog trainer with nine years experience training Service and Therapy Dogs and five years experience with breeding, Christy has brought her dream of empowering others to fruition with the creation of Mission Working Dogs."

Students were highly engaged and provided an excellent audience for Christy. There was a little bit for everyone on Wellness Day 2024. Hopefully, your children came home with positive stories to share.

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Mrs. Purdy: From the Library

Maine Student Book Award & Tarin Reading Challenge Celebration!

Wellness Day began with our reading challenge celebration where we announced how many books Whittier students read this year, which grade won the challenge, and gave out top reader prizes! Whittier students read a total of 2,149 books during the 2023-24 school year which meant that Mr. Vincent had to do something crazy!

Congratulations to the 8th grade for reading the most books, and congratulations to our top readers this year! Each top reader received a gift card to Books-A-Million, a gift certificate to next week's Scholastic Book Fair, along with a couple of other goodies! Thank you to Horace Mann for donating the Books-A-Million gift cards!

7th grade Top Readers!

Isabelle Dyer: 78 Books

Juliette Szantyr: 33 books

Megan Gagnon: 29 books

8th Grade Top Readers!

Lila Martin: 119 books

Arabella Smith: 74 books

Blake Brown: 46 books

We also celebrated reading with our Masked Reader Challenge! Throughout the week, each language arts class tried to guess our masked readers and got to see the readers unmasked during our reading celebration! The library would like to thank our masked readers: Mrs. Wight, Mrs. Gilbert, Mr. Rose, Mrs. Rioux, and Mr. Vincent, our shark masked reader who had to dance to Baby Shark and make a few other shark appearances during the day to fulfill his end of the reading challenge bargain! We also want to thank Mr. Galipeau-Eldridge for photographing our reading challenge celebration!

Author Visit

The library also hosted Sashi Kaufman, the author of Maine Student Book Award nominee, Sardines, the book that inspired the theme for this year's reading challenge! Mrs. Kaufman joined us for our fun reading celebration in the library and handed out our top reader prizes, and then she hosted a Wellness Day session in the library where she shared her journey as an author and did a fun activity with all of us! We also enjoyed a yummy lunch with the author where we raffled off copies of her book! We had so much fun celebrating reading on Wellness Day!

Scholastic Book Fair

The library is hosting a Buy One, Get One Free Book Fair in the library all week, May 28th - June 3rd. There will be lots of great books and other fun items! The book fair is a great opportunity to stock up on summer reading! Check out our book fair homepage for more information and to set up an eWallet account. If you have any questions, please contact Julie Purdy in the library (jpurdy@rsu16.org, 207-998-5400 ext. 210.)

Nurse's Office: Get Outdoors But Be Aware

The summer weather has arrived and the browntail caterpillars as well as ticks are out. The greatest risk of exposure to browntail moth caterpillars' toxic hairs is between April and July. Tick season in Maine is from early spring to late fall, with two peaks in April–May and June–early July. As of May 13, the year to date cases of lyme disease is 437 in the state of Maine.

The caterpillar hairs can cause skin rashes similar to poison ivy, and in sensitive people, they can also cause respiratory distress. The toxin in the hairs can remain in the environment for up to three years and can become airborne at any time. This CDC brochure helps to understand the human effects (rashes, respiratory effects): https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/shm/Browntail-Moth-FS.pdf

Here is a Maine website with more information about ticks. https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/vector-borne/lyme/tick-attachment-and-tickborne-diseases.shtml

Some ways to help prevent lyme disease is to wear protective clothing (long sleeved, light colors, long pants, and high boots), tuck shirt into your pants and your pants into your socks to cover gaps, use repellents (apply EPA-approved repellents containing DEET or picaradin according to the label directions, especially on shoes, socks, and pant legs. Avoid applying high-concentration products to the skin, especially on children), check for ticks (check your clothing and gear for ticks when coming back indoors, and do a full-body tick check, paying special attention to areas like under the arms, behind the knees, and in the hair), shower (take a shower within two hours after spending time outdoors to wash off any unattached ticks), and call your doctor if you get a fever or rash.

Have fun, be safe, and enjoy the beautiful Maine outdoors!

Thank you.

Lisa Storer RN, BSN

BMWMS/PRHS School Nurse

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Ms Allocco: Spanish

Students in Spanish class made posters to advertise various places/events and then voted for their favorites.

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Mrs. Lachapelle and Mr. Knott: Geek Squad

The Geek Squad was unable to make their trip to the MLTI Conference in Orono this year, so they created their own experience on Thursday. The Squad visited Central Maine Community College for a tour and were introduced to their Esports program. CMCC was an amazing host. The students came back to Whittier and flew drones on the football field. Great day!

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Mr. King: Whittier Athletics

Tuesday 5/28

7th BB/SB HM vs tripp MS 3:45

8th BB/SB @ Tripp MS 3:45, depart 2:20

Thursday 5/30

7th BB/SB Hm vs Freeport 4:00

8th BB/SB @ Freeport MS 4:00, depart 2:20

Outdoor Track League Invitational @ Freeport 3:00, depart 1:00

Now is a great time to inventory your child's laundry pile. Any Whittier uniforms that have not been returned from previous seasons are welcomed home! If you have a uniform that needs to be returned, please send them in with your name on it.

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Join Team Whittier at the Triple Crown 5K Series

Looking for a great way to get active this summer? Join the Whittier Middle School team at the Greater L-A Triple Crown 5K Series. The first event is June 2nd at Festival Plaza in Auburn. Students 14 and under receive FREE registration! All are welcome on Team Whittier.

Visit the Triple Crown 5K website for more information about the series.

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Bruce M. Whittier Middle School

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